Infinite Strike Witches
by LTPugh
Summary: Ichika Orimura had just won his first battle when a blinding flash threw him and his friends into a different world, One where aliens had invaded Earth and humanity was fighting for its life. Separated from his friends he must fight so he can survive this crazy new world where magic exists alongside WWII technology. M for possible violence, adult situations and graphic violence.
1. In Witch there is a Flash

Infinite Strike Witches Chapter One

Ichika Orimura let loose a primal roar of victory as Yukihira connected with the body of the Silver Gospel at full power. Traveling at close to full speed Byakushki Setsura smashed the Gospel out of the air and plowed both of them into a nearby beach. As the massive cloud of sand dissipated the five girls that had fought alongside flew up.

"Is it over?" asked Charlotte as she supported a mildly shaky Rin.

"Did we win?" said Laura at the same time as she and Cecilia leaned against each other.

"I believe so," answered Houki.

Ichika meanwhile was just standing up from the impact. Glancing down he saw that there was a cut in the drone's armor. As he stood something dark and liquid started welling from the wound. Curious as to what it could be Ichika sheathed his sword and kneeled down. Laying both hands on the Gospel he scooped up a little with his finger and brought it closer. As he brought it to his face he saw that it was red.

"I thi...," Ichika started to exclaim but was cut off by a tremendous flash and a ball of light that came from the Gospel.

Back in the command center Maya Yamada and Chifuyu Orimura stared at the satellite projection on the screen. One second there had been seven IS's clustered together, the next there was a flash and they were all gone. Chifuyu recovered first and turned to face the third occupant of the room.

"What in the world just happened?" she demanded in a voice that was part angry, part questioning and completely worried.

For quite possibly the first time in her life since she had learned to speak Tabane Shinonono was completely silent as she too stared at the screen. Then three words that had never come out of her mouth before emerged, "I don't know" she said in a stunned quiet voice

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Major Mio Sakamoto was up and running towards the hangar before she consciously realized that the Akagi's general quarters alarm had gone off. She had just given Miyafugi her own earpiece and as her brain caught up she was mildly concerned about leaving her alone but she didn't have time to worry about her now.

Ducking through the final hatch she sprinted to her Striker Unit and quickly climbed up and into them. Before she'd even fully climbed in the elevator she was on had started rising. Grabbing her Type 99 machine gun and making sure her sword was in place she started the Striker as the elevator finally reached the Akagi's flight deck.

The Akagi was off the coast of the Iberian Peninsula and had been steaming north towards Portsmouth for repair and upgrades along with her sister carrier Kaga and the battleship Nagato along with their escort of three light cruisers and twelve destroyers. Now the battle group was taking evasive action and the carriers were turning into the wind to let them launch their fighters.

As the last of the ready Zero's thundered off the deck Sakamoto moved forward as fast as she could and lined up on the centerline. "This is Major Sakamoto requesting permission for takeoff," she hollered over the starting engines and the roar of the wind.

"Permission granted Major," came the relatively calm voice of flight control, "Be advised enemy force consists of one dreadnaught and supporting light units. It appears to have just finished entering the atmosphere."

Sakamoto had thundered down the flight deck before granted had finished coming out of the controllers mouth but still had the presence of mind to grunt an affirmative as she thundered after the eight Zero's that were already in the air.

"This is Major Sakamoto," she said as she took the center slot in the formation, "standard drill men. Keep the small fry off me while I deal with the dreadnaught." A chorus of affirmatives followed her orders and that was it as they reached firing range of the swarm of enemy fighters.

The Zero's broke off in pairs and went after the Martian fighters that were mostly wings with pipes sticking out the end. Sakamoto just raised her shield and plowed through, taking shots at the fighters as she went. Two seconds later five of the Martian craft were down and one of the Zero's was trailing smoke. Sakamoto's shield had clipped one of the Martians wings and she straightened out her path as she headed for the dreadnaught.

Raising her eyepatch she looked for the dreadnaught's energy core. Several years of fighting had showed that the best way to take out the aerial DN's was to take out the energy system that kept them in the air. But each DN seemed to be built differently and the cores were never in the same spot.

This one's seemed to be above and forward and she closed fast to minimize her exposure to its fire, spiraling to dodge as much of it as possible. As she entered range she opened up with her Type 99. Despite its heavy armor, her magic empowered bullets still did a decent amount of damage. But as she blew past she knew that she would have to hit it harder to take it out.

Making a tight turn she headed back towards the dreadnaught, planning to strafe its engines on her return pass. But she immediately had to bank away as she felt her shield heating up. That meant the DN was using a maser on her and those were bad news. Witches shields were good for stopping physical matter but the heat generated by a maser could still get through and fry her if it had enough time, which she wasn't going to give it.

Diving down out of the masers path she risked a glimpse of the rest of the battle. Several more of the roughly twenty or so Martian fighters had been shot down but so had one of the Zeros. Looking back up she managed to dodge a barrage of the small spinning rockets the Martians liked to use. Shooting out in front she took a barrage of kinetic projectiles on her shield as she skewed around. Staggering back on course she again unleashed a barrage of 50. Caliber rounds at the dreadnaughts core area.

This time she caught a couple of rockets and staggered hard through the air throwing off her aim. As she flew by again she swore she saw the core exposed but the DN was still in the air. Just as she cleared the end of the DN she was hit again and she started losing speed and altitude. Looking back one of her strikers was smoking and the other was on fire. Attempting to gain altitude she quickly realized that it wasn't going to happen. It was all she could do to keep up a decent shield to keep her from getting hit again. "This is Sakamoto," she radioed, "I'm hit and going down."

Ditching the on fire striker she tried her best to keep from falling to far out of control with her remaining leg unit. That was easier said than done as the Martian DN kept up a rain of fire in her direction. Cursing fate Sakamoto started falling out of the sky, "One more Witch," she thought, "One more Witch and we could've taken it. Now it's luck if the fighters can get it or not."

Glancing over she saw that the Martians were down to about eight fighters but there were only two zero's left. The others were still about a minute away minimum. Even if they did get the Dreadnaught it would shred them in return. Closing her eyes she spoke softly, "Sorry Mina, I guess you'll have to get along without me."

Opening her eyes she saw the Dreadnaught looming still spitting fire on her increasingly weakened shield. As the next barrage hit her damaged striker finally gave out. She started falling like a brick. Drawing her sword she prepared to go out like a warrior. That was when the flash came.

_OOC: Thanks for reading my first ever published story! I realize its short but I plan on keeping this up. Reviews are asked for and appreciated. Constructive criticism is a great help. Flames are used for Cheeseburgers. Thanks!_

_Edit: I forgot the disclaimer! I do not own Strike Witches or Infinite Stratos. If you thought I did go get your head checked._


	2. In Witch we catch a Witch

Infinite Strike Witches Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own neither Strike Witches or Infinite Stratos.

_Authors notes: Hey everyone new update! Just for reference this is not the standard Strike Witches universe. I'm using an AU created for Strike Witches Quest. For a brief reference its the Martian's invading this time and not the Neuroi, so I'm not crazy when I'm talking about Dreadnaughts. Anyway hope you enjoy!_

Ichika's body reacted reflexively with the flash, closing his eyes, lowering his head and scrunching his body into as small of a space as it could manage, which included tightening his arms around the Gospel. A roaring sound filled his ears and queasiness filled his stomach as his inner ear refused to tell him which direction was which. But despite both of those things as soon as his brain figured out he wasn't dead it insisted that he pay attention to where his face was.

"What is this feeling?" thought Ichika as he moved his face back and forth to feel what was on both sides of his face. It was something he remembered feeling before, something soft yet still firm at the same time. Where had he felt it before? Then it clicked. He had felt it before when Yamada sensei had crashed into him and that time Char had hugged him in the bath...

With that thought Ichika's brain froze as did the rest of his body. It only lasted for a second because that was when the roaring stopped and his body promptly informed him which way was down. Ichika's head popped up and his eyes opened as the sound of the wind replaced the roaring of seconds ago. The sight that greeted his eyes made him wonder if he really had opened his eyes or if he was just hallucinating badly.

Falling straight at him was possibly the strangest looking woman he had ever seen, including Tabane. Her face was relatively normal for a Japanese woman except for the eye patch and her long dark hair was standard black but she had _ANIMAL EARS_. She also appeared to be wearing a _Military Uniform _over a_ School Swimsuit _and was holding a_ Sword! _

All of this flashed through his head in a split second. The next thought in Ichika's mind was "_She's headed right towards me!"_ Thinking quickly Ichika reached out a hand to catch her. Luckily she was more on his left side than his right as his right arm was busy putting the unconscious girl from the Gospel under itself so she wasn't in the way.

Though they were both falling she was falling faster and Ichika barely managed to catch her with his outstretched hand. Due to the difference in speed she slammed into his arm and let out a pained grunt, but Ichika managed to hold on thanks to the strength granted by his IS. Tucking the new girl under his left arm Ichika finally rolled over to see where the ground was.

It turned out that it wasn't the ground, it was the ocean. And it was only about 100 feet below him. _"OHHHH SHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!,"_ was the first and only thing in Ichika's mind as he desperately attempted to pull up before he hit the sea. He almost didn't make it, but thanks to his recent third shift his IS had enough power to pull out of the dive in time. Going horizontal barely a foot above the water he left a massive amount of spray behind him as the thrust of his boosters pushed him back into the sky.

As he reached 500 feet Ichika remembered the girls under his arms. Glancing down and right he saw that the girl from the Gospel, who had very pretty blonde hair a part of him noticed, appeared to have woken up and was staring up at him with very wide, very blue eyes. Turning to the left the strange girl, yep she still had ears not hallucinating, was looking up at him with a similar expression with her one good eye.

Glancing back and forth between the both of them, Ichika realized he had two stunned women under his arms and absolutely no idea what to do. So, being Ichika, he promptly put his foot in his mouth. "Hello," he said in perfectly calm English, "I'm Ichika, Ichika Orimura. How are you?"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

When the flash came Mio Sakamoto honestly thought that she was dead. There were enough stories from near death survivors that she really thought Mama Sakamoto's daughter wasn't going home. Then the flash cleared and she wasn't dead. Or at least she thought she wasn't.

Floating in front of her, no _Falling _in front of her was what appeared to be a white winged angel. But then she realized that it was actually a person in some kind of odd suit. THEN she realized she was about to crash into the person, no two people, and closed her eyes for the impact.

Right before the impact she felt herself slow for just an instant and that turned what should have probably been a bone breaking crash into something that only made her grunt and might leave bruises. As Sakamoto opened her eyes again she felt herself be tucked up under her saviors arm like a child as they rolled over. At first she thought it was uncontrolled but when the roll stopped she realized that they had some control. Not that it was going to matter since they were about to crash into the Atlantic.

But suddenly there was a massive pulling and she found herself with her nose about to touch the water before she felt and saw herself being pulled up. Glancing around with incredulity she looked for whatever let the craft fly but there was no obvious propulsion even if it did have wings. Then they abruptly stopped and she finally looked up at her savior.

She had been expecting a woman. Women were the only ones in the world who could fly without a plane, everyone knew that. But her savior was most definitely a man, no a _boy_ and that was what caused her to be surprised, then he spoke.

"Hello," he said in perfectly calm Japanese accented English, "I'm Ichika, Ichika Orimura. How are you?"

Sakamoto couldn't help it. Not thirty seconds ago she had been under fire from a Martian Dreadnaught and absolutely certain she was going to die. Then she thought she had died but hadn't, was caught in midair by this strange boy and then almost died again. Now she was floating in the air, supported by nothing she could see and he calmly asked how she was. So she did what any sane person would do, she laughed.

It was a deep belly laugh the kind that was impossible to fake convincingly. It was a laugh that let out the sheer terror of almost dying, the nervousness of not being in control of what happened to her and contained the slight note of actual humor from floating in the air under the arm of a teenage boy. It was a good minute before she got herself under control and said, "Considering that I thought I was going to die, CLIMB CLIMB CLIMB!"

Ichika had been staring at the animal eared woman the entire time she had been laughing so he was caught by surprise when she yelled. But years of living with Chifuyu and the months at the IS Academy had taught him to obey the tone of command in her voice so he automatically shot straight up.

Sakamoto grunted as a sudden upward force caused the arm supporting her to dig into her stomach. One moment they were at roughly 500 feet, the next they were over 1000. She'd never seen anyone, including a Witch, climb that fast. It was a good thing he did because immediately after they moved the air they had occupied was filled with Martian rockets.

Ichika didn't see the rockets pass below them; he was too busy staring at what fired them. So to, apparently was the blond under his right arm, she was just more vocal about it.

"What in the hell is that thing!" she exclaimed.

That thing was the Martian Dreadnaught Sakamoto had been fighting. It had apparently seen her survive and come to finish her off.

Although no two Dreadnaughts' were exactly the same most were approximately 160 meters long, 30 wide and 20 high. Their main armament usually consisted of 4 heavy masers batteries, 2 on each side, in turrets mounted fore and aft along the midline. Most flying Dreadnaughts's also carried between 10 and 20 light fighters, known colloquially as "Pricks". The rest of their armament consisted of batteries of unguided spiral rockets and small caliber cannons similar to ones humans used.

Thankfully flying Dreadnaughts (DN's), were relatively rare. Most DN's were oceangoing, which humanity was profoundly grateful for. On the water the Martians masers were attenuated badly by the water and humanity's battleships generally held a decisive advantage. The flying DN's were a different story.

Most fighters lacked the raw speed and maneuverability needed to survive inside the DN's firing range or the ability to carry powerful enough ordinance to take them down. Even the ones that could generally took losses around fifty percent. Due to the high cost in planes, pilots and morale such attacks generated, most militaries used squads of at least 4 Witches to take them down.

Ichika of course knew none of this and simply stared at the behemoth floating over him until a harsh voice yelled, "Move or you're going to get us all killed!"

Shocked out of his revere Ichika immediately ducked to the right and rolled, narrowly ducking the next flight of rockets. Skidding back and forth randomly across the sky, he avoided the Martians fire mainly by being faster and more maneuverable than anything they'd ever seen. Continuing to dodge Ichika held tight to the girls under each arm, not daring to loosen his grip as he pulled multiple high-speed maneuvers in a row.

"Get higher!" came the strained voice of the Japanese woman and Ichika complied, shooting for higher altitude as he spiraled around the Martians fire. As he got above and farther away from the DN its fire slackened and became easier to avoid. Glancing down at the woman on his left he hollered, "What now?"

"Does this thing have any weapons?" asked Sakamoto, not seeing any obvious weapons.

"Yeah," answered Ichika, sliding out of the path of more incoming fire, "But I can't use any of it right now!"

"Why not?" queried Sakamoto.

"Because you're in my hands!" hollered Ichika, "I need a hand free to use my weapons!"

"Which one!?" grunted out Sakamoto as Ichika pulled a barrel roll.

"My righ.. no left! I need my left!" yelled Ichika as near misses zoomed by.

Sakamoto thought about his answer for a second and then said in a flat tone, "Drop me."

"What!" exclaimed Ichika, "I can't do that! You might die!"

"If you don't drop me we'll all die!" returned Sakamoto.

"I don't even know where to hit it!" countered Ichika.

"See the great big hole!" said Sakamoto, "Shoot it there! That's where its core is! Destroy that and it'll fall out of the sky!"

"Fine!" said Ichika, "But I'm not dropping you!"

Sakamoto opened her mouth to argue the point but she never got the chance. Immediately after he finished Ichika rolled right, one, two, three times building up momentum each time. At the same time he dropped Sakamoto and the blonde below him and pushed them together. Reacting instinctively the blonde grabbed Sakamoto just as Ichika completed the upswing of his third roll. At which point he promptly flung them straight into the air. Sakamoto could only stare at what came next.

Ichika knew that any action he took would have to be fast. Besides the two women he had just thrown into the air he was low on power. Byakushki had never been overpowered and the Setsura upgrades were even bigger power-drains than Yukihira. The only reason he had managed to defeat the Gospel was Houki's recharge One Off ability. So any action he was to take had to be fast.

Knowing this, he did something which most would have considered stupid, he charged. The DN was below him by a couple thousand feet and in front by only a couple hundred. Aiming himself at the hole in the DN he pulled out the oldest and previously least effective move in his book, he brought out Yukihira and activated Ignition boost.

In his previous battles the Boost combo had failed mainly because his opponents were better trained and nearly as maneuverable as he was. This battle was different, this battle was not a one on one IS duel so Ichika's lack of training didn't matter, nor did the massive difference in firepower. The only thing that mattered in this case was speed and when it came to raw speed nobody in either world was faster than Byakushki with Double Ignition Boost.

He didn't need to dodge; the Martian's literally couldn't aim fast enough. He didn't need to adjust his course; the Dreadnaught couldn't have dodged if it wanted to. The only thing Ichika did was activate the boost and hang on.

To the unaided eyes of the three witnesses Ichika was only visible as a white streak, going so fast as to leave an afterimage. One moment Ichika was above the Dreadnaught, the next he wasn't and it resembled an insect stuck by a pin of white light.

For a moment it appeared nothing had happened, the guns continued to fire and it was still rising in the air, but only for a moment. The next moment fire exploded out of both holes in the Dreadnaught and the guns stopped firing. Gravity took a second to stop its upward momentum and then began to enact its revenge on the Martians for trying to make something the size of a small building fly.

Sakamoto could only stare as Ichika seemingly blurred into movement towards the DN and was mildly surprised when it exploded.

"How? How could he do that?" she said in a shocked voice as they came to the peak of Ichika's toss.

"He's got an IS," answered the girl holding onto her.

"An IS?" she asked looking at the girl, "What's an IS?"

"Why do you have animal ears?" returned the blonde.

"I...I see," said Sakamoto with a thoughtful look on her face, "I guess we have a lot to talk about."

"Yes we do," said the blonde, "Just as soon as that brave idiot catches us and we land on something solid."

Sakamoto laughed at that, "Yes I agree." I'm Major Mio Sakamoto."

"Natasha Fairs United States Representative Candidate. I'd shake your hand but..." she shifted her shoulder, glancing down at the ground she said, "I hope he catches us soon, I still haven't made up my mind on whether to slap him or kiss him."

"I agree," said Sakamoto, "but I think I'll settle for a handshake. Look, here he comes now."

"Yeah, but who's behind him?" asked Natasha.

"Oh god," said Sakamoto, "How'd she manage to take off already?"

Coming in behind Ichika was a small girl with what looked like engines on her legs and a machine gun almost as long as she was strapped to her back. However she wasn't so much behind him as around, to the side, above and below him. It was clear that she had little understanding of how to fly properly. As Ichika came up and caught Sakamoto and Natasha gently she came zooming by.

"Mmajor Ssakkammotoo," she said in high pitched voice as she tried and failed to keep a steady path, "I'm so gllad tooo seeee youoo!"

"Miyafuji, how'd you get a Striker Unit!" said Sakamoto in a slightly harsh voice tinged with worry, "You're not even trained yet!"

The girl, Miyafuji Ichika noted, was apparently figuring out how to fine tune her...unit thing as she finally managed to take up a mostly stable spot beside him. What she wasn't able to do was calm down and speak in a clear manner.

"Wwell," she started and then released in a torrent, "Yyou told me to stay put and then you went off after that thing with the pilots and then there were some explosions and then I heard you over the radio saying you were going down and then you cut off and I was scared and people were running around and and and..."

"Calm down Miyafuji," Sakamoto said in a firm yet soft voice, realizing the girl was almost out of her mind from nerves, "Take a deep breath and just tell me how you got in the Striker."

Miyafuji took a deep breath and then proceeded in a calmer manner, "Wwell after you said you were going down a bunch of men were all saying how they were doomed without a Witch aand I remembered how you told me you wanted me to fight with you aand you showed me the Striker and I was just ssso sscared, bbutt I couldn't just let them down and and," she took a deep breath at that point and seemingly summoned up her courage. "I HAD TO PROTECT EVERYONE!" she said with tears in her eyes as her face scrunched up like she was afraid she was going to be scolded.

"I see," came Sakamoto's voice softly and Miyafuji looked up to see an almost motherly smile on it, "So you decided to use your powers to fight and protect everyone did you?"

"Yyes," Miyafuji said almost shyly. But then her voice returned to an almost excited level, "But I didn't have to bbecause hheee did it!" she said pointing at Ichika.

"I'm sure you would have done a magnificent job Yoshika," said Sakamoto reassuringly, to which Yoshika blushed, "Yoshika, this is Natasha Fairs and Ichika Orimura. Introduce yourself."

"H-hello," Yoshika said, "I'm Yoshika Miyafuji, nice to meet you."

"And since you weren't here I'll reintroduce myself," said Sakamoto to Ichika, "Major Mio Sakamoto, Imperial Japanese Navy. And as much as I appreciate you saving me if it's all the same to you I'd really prefer to be back on the Akagi with a deck under my feet. I'm sure Ms. Fairs feels the same."

"Wait," said Ichika, his brain not quite grasping that something was off, "The Akagi? The Akagi was destroyed back in 1942 at the battle of Midway!"

"Not here it wasn't," corrected Sakamoto, "its 1943 and I took off from it not an hour ago."

Ichika, who had had a long day and several battles under his belt, just stared at her as his brain tried to process what she had just said. Finally he came to a conclusion and simply said, "Ok, where to?"

"Follow me!" said Yoshika helpfully as she headed off in a mostly straight line. Ichika just sighed and followed her, adjusting his grip slightly, making sure that he had a good hold on Sakamoto and Natasha.

The flight to the Akagi was relatively short and completely uneventful. As they approached Yoshika finally remembered to radio in that Sakamoto was ok and that they were friendly's. Yoshika landed first, managing not to crash into anything and only lightly thumping into the first net.

Ichika didn't know carrier landing signals, but he didn't need to. He simply flew up to the side of the Akagi, scaring several of the gunners who only held fire because of hastily given orders. Settling lightly in the middle of the flight deck he let the two ladies down gently on their feet.

Turning around Sakamoto looked up and down at Ichika, "Now I don't know how or where we're going to put it but we need to get that thing off of you and stored away somewhere before I have to go explain everything to the Captain."

Off to the side Natasha just smiled as Ichika said, "Oh ok" and deactivated his IS.

Sakamoto's surprise showed on her face as Byakushki simply disappeared in a cloud of light. This was compounded as Ichika, who had been fighting for the better part of a day as well as just having recovered from massive injuries and was now lacking the support of his IS, suddenly collapsed onto the deck.

The last thing Ichika saw as he passed out were three concerned looking eyes, one dark, the other two blue.

_Authors notes: Yay another chapter done! I hoped you enjoyed it and please review. I think I got the characterizations pretty well and I'm feeling pretty good about this as a whole, I've got some great ideas ready for the right time._

_Let me tell you though, I was trying to find some things for the Infinite Stratos side of this and there is nothing! Strike Witches had age, height, weapon stats, flight ability, mother's maiden name etc. IS has a name, age and a basic description, no height or anything. Much less anything concrete about the IS's themselves so I'm going to have to start making things up for the story. From what I was able to find I'm half convinced Chifuyu simply scared the military into surrendering by sheer badassness and didn't actually fight them._

_Anyway, please please please review and I'll see you again soon!_


	3. In Witch there is much talking

OOC: Well here it is, finally, Chapter 3. Sorry it took so long and I'll try not to do it again but no promises. Anyway I hope you enjoy.

I own none of the Characters of Strike Witches or Infinite Stratos.

Infinite Strike Witches Chapter 3

Sakamoto started moving immediately after Ichika hit the hard steel deck of the Akagi. "Medic!" she hollered over her shoulder and the sound of the wind as she kneeled next to him, "Bring a stretcher!"

Natasha was right next to her and Sakamoto glanced at her worriedly, "Is this normal?" she asked with concern in her voice.

Natasha shook her head in the negative, concern on her face, "No, this isn't normal. I have no idea what's wrong with him."

It was then that a medic and a pair of stretcher bearers rushed up next to them. Both women knew when they weren't needed and backed out of the way as the medic did some initial checks on Ichika. Finding nothing immediately wrong he gestured towards the bearers and had them lift Ichika onto the stretcher. Once that was done they headed off towards the sickbay deep in the bowels of the ship.

Sakamoto grabbed the medic as he passed and asked, "Do you know what's wrong with him?"

"No mam," he replied shaking his head, "There's nothing wrong with him that I can find. In fact it looks like he just collapsed from fatigue to me, but you'll want to ask the Doctor about that later."

Sakamoto nodded her thanks at the man and he headed off after the stretcher. Natasha was next to her and Miyafuji had come running up from where she had hopped off her Striker Unit.

Miyafuji was bouncing up and down with worry as Sakamoto turned away from the medic. "What's wrong with Ichika Sempai!" she asked with worry in her voice, "Can I do anything to help!?"

"No I..." Sakamoto started to say but stopped, a thoughtful look on her face, "Actually Yoshika why don't you go down to sickbay and see if the doctor needs any help with Ichika. You never know if he might need some."

Yoshika nodded and ran off after the medic. Natasha watched her run off and then said offhand, "Good way to get rid of her."

"It was the easiest way and she means well," said Sakamoto, "I don't think she's quite ready for whatever we're going to talk about."

Natasha looked at Sakamoto with a wry look on her face, "Big girls only?"

"Yes," replied Sakamoto, "Or at least until we get everything figured out and can explain it in a way that doesn't freak everyone out."

"I'm not sure that's going to happen," said Natasha, "But I'm willing to give it a shot. I don't think out here on the flight deck is the right place for it though."

"No its' not," said Sakamoto shaking her head. "Follow me," she said with a wave of her hand. She turned around and started heading for the interior of the ship when a serious faced but still young Lieutenant came rushing up to her and saluted. Sakamoto returned the salute and asked in a voice befitting her rank, "What is it Lieutenant?"

The young man, obviously nervous dealing with someone who could literally and figuratively squash him like a bug, nevertheless delivered his message with aplomb, "Major the Captain requests that you attend to him on the bridge at your earliest convenience for debriefing." Translated, that meant, "Get your ass up here now and tell me what the hell just happened."

That was a problem for Sakamoto as she didn't actually know what had just happened. However she hadn't made Major by being slow on her feet. So her reply came after only a second of contemplation. "Lieutenant please give my compliments to the Captain," she said in a serious tone, "And inform him that I will be up to brief him as soon as I have finished dealing with Council business."

The Lieutenant almost blanched as Sakamoto finished speaking but managed to snap of a quick salute before turning and nearly bolting back into the ship. Natasha looked at the man and turned to Sakamoto, "What's his problem?" she asked curiously.

"Politics," said Sakamoto in a voice that managed to combine scorn and an aura of weariness, "And a heaping dose of being caught in the middle." Gesturing at Natasha she said, "Come on, we can walk and talk at the same time."

Natasha nodded and followed her into the bowels of the ship. Sakamoto lead the way through the ship, nodding at the men who plastered themselves against the wall out of respect for her and her rank talking all the while.

"You asked earlier why I had animal ears?" Sakamoto said looking back at Natasha as she descended the ladder (stairs) quickly. Natasha nodded as she followed after the Major.

"Well the answer to that is fairly simple Ms. Fairs," said Sakamoto, "I'm a Witch."

Natasha stopped suddenly and stared at the Major, "You're a what?" she said in a confused voice.

Sakamoto paused only to grin at Natasha and say again in a mildly playful voice, "I'm a Witch," after that she kept walking.

Natasha just stared at her for a few seconds more before starting to move again. "Like potions and spells and flying around on a broomstick witch?"

"Not quite," answered Sakamoto in a more business like voice, as the continued down the ladder past working areas and down into crew territory, "Or at least not for a while."

"What do you mean?" said Natasha, curiosity in her voice, as she followed close behind and did her best to not hit her legs on the knee knockers that lined the passageways.

"I mean that we do use "spells" if you must call them that, but we haven't used brooms since the invention of flight and the magic engine," replied Sakamoto. Continuing on Sakamoto said, "And yes, the magic engine is actually an engine, it lets us take our natural magic energies and use them more efficiently."

Natasha shook her head as she tried to accept what she had just heard. As they had been walking she had drawn stares from the men, partially because of how she looked, but also because after a month on ship the men knew everyone they were likely to meet and she was an unknown. Since she was with Sakamoto she was left unmolested by anyone and they descended quickly into the ship.

Sakamoto pulled up when she got to the door she was looking for and gestured Natasha inside. Natasha entered and took the small room in at a glance. It was a small private room, obviously Sakamoto's. It wasn't much; there was a wall mounted bunk, a locker and a small desk with some paperwork and a folding chair.

Natasha sat at the head of the bed and Sakamoto took the chair, sitting in it in reverse. The two of them just sat for a moment, almost sizing each other up. It was Natasha who broke the silence.

"So, let me get this straight" she said ticking off things on her hand, "It is currently 1943, I'm onboard the IJN Akagi, you're a Witch who flies using magic engines strapped to her legs, you're apparently fighting giant flying buildings that shoot deathrays," there was a brief pause as Natasha finally noticed something, "and you're not wearing pants."

"Got it in one," said Sakamoto with a grin but her face quickly sobered, "The real question is where you come from. As far as I'm aware you just appeared in the sky along with your friend and his very interesting suit."

"Uhm…" Natasha paused at that; the truth was she didn't know how she got there either. "I honestly don't know how we got here," she said honestly, "the last thing I remember before waking up here was suiting up for a run in the Gospel."

"What's the first thing you remember after you got here?" asked Sakamoto.

"Uhm…" said Natasha as she tried to remember, then she turned red as she remembered. "Oh I am so going to have to slap him," she muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" asked Sakamoto.

"Oh nothing," said Natasha quickly in a flippant voice before continuing seriously, "I was just saying that the first thing I remember seeing was you falling at me and Ichika."

"That's not very helpful," muttered Sakamoto disappointedly, "I guess we'll have to wait until the boy wakes up to find out what happened."

"Not necessarily," said Natasha, Sakamoto's words had jogged her brain, which was still in a mild state of shock, "Give me a second."

Sakamoto was about to ask what she meant when Natasha brought up her hands and put them in a position that looked like she was typing. For a second it looked like the blonde was going insane but then a glowing board and a screen appeared in front of her. Sakamoto jumped back, startled at its sudden appearance. Unfazed by the Japanese woman's shock, Natasha immediately started typing.

"Where did that come from?!" said Sakamoto with surprise.

"This," Natasha said while continuing her rapid fire typing, "Is the manual pilot interface for the Silverio Gospel. It allows me to access the Gospel and its AI's functions and memories if they are in standby or repair mode."

Sakamoto sat still and tried to comprehend what Natasha had just said. Coming to terms that she didn't she asked, "Translate that to something I can understand please."

Natasha paused with a grin, glad that the surprise shoe was on the other foot for once. "Ok," she said focus back on her typing, "This is the manual interface for my IS, Silverio Gospel. It also has an Artificial Intelligence or AI, which helps with complex battle maneuvers. Normally I could just call them up but right now they are both in repair mode, I'm not sure why though, and I can't access them that way." Natasha paused to take a quick breath, "I'm trying to access the inflight recordings, they should show us what exactly happened… and I've got them!" she said with mild excitement.

"And they should tell us what happened" asked Sakamoto, moving to sit beside Natasha so she could see what was going on.

"Yes they should," answered Natasha typing more. "I'm trying to make it display a 3D model but it isn't being very… Ah ha! Now we should be able to see what happened, at least in the area around the Gospel."

As Natasha spoke, she dropped her hands and the keyboard and screen disappeared, they were replaced by a small frozen 3D image of what appeared to be a suit of white armor with wings. Along the sides of the image numbers scrolled by at a remarkable rate.

"What's that?" asked Sakamoto as she tried to grasp what she was looking at.

"That," said Natasha with a hint of pride in her voice, "Is my IS, the Silver Gospel."

"And what are the numbers?" Sakamoto continued, mild frustration evident in her lack of understanding.

"Various things," said Natasha eyes focused on the image, "Right now they're telling me that the Gospel is functioning at full capacity, travelling at supercruise, not engaged in combat and…wait, what? We're somewhere over the Pacific Ocean? I was supposed to be over by Pearl."

Sakamoto opened her mouth to say something, but then decided that it was best to just go along for the ride. "Just narrate for me a little when it starts, ok?" she says to Natasha the other woman started the playback.

"Oka... HOLY SHIT!" exclaimed Natasha as a blur went buy the model at extremely high speeds. The rest of the playback went by in much the same manner, as Natasha tried to explain what was going on to Sakamoto while being surprised herself most of the time. At the end of the playback the two women sat there for a minute just recovering.

Natasha was the one to break the silence, letting out a huge sigh she said, "Hoollee Shit. That is exactly not what I thought happened for us to get here."

Sakamoto looked at her wryly and chuckled, "You didn't think that was what happened? I STILL don't get what happened, or at least not why it was such a big deal. Care to try to explain it to me?"

Natasha leaned back and looked at the ceiling, contemplating how to tell Sakamoto what she wanted to hear. Turning her head she asked, "Do you at least get the general outline of what happened?"

"Yes," said Sakamoto, "I get that much. First two bogies came and attacked you but you managed to fight them off, after apparently hurting one very badly and damaging the other while not taking much if any damage yourself. A little while later you were ambushed by five more bogies, one of them being the one you fought off earlier. They seemed to have gotten the upper hand on you your IS apparently…changed somehow and got back into the fight. After almost defeating them AGAIN, the IS that you had apparently defeated showed again but it had also changed. When it appeared the other five seemed to gain heart and together they managed to defeat you. Is that more or less it?"

"Yeah, said Natasha a little distantly still thinking, "Those are the basics. You want why that was such a big deal though, right?" she turned her head towards Sakamoto at the end.

Sakamoto nodded, "Yeah, you seemed…rather surprised when there were finally 6 of them and at the fact that the sixth one came back. I just don't have a frame of reference for why you'd be surprised."

"Alright," said Natasha slowly, "Ok," she said more brightly, "I think I've got it." "So I'm going to make some assumptions but I think this will work out. In my world the year is 2024. Up until ten years ago military systems were probably what your familiar with, guys on the ground with guns and tanks, various aircraft and ships in the sea. No witches though. But in 2014 that changed. It was then that Professor Tabane Shinonono introduced the IS. When she released is she said that it would surpass all current weapon systems," she paused there and looked at Sakamoto with a wry grin, "She was sixteen at the time so you can guess how many people took her seriously. No one even wanted to take a chance on her because initially the IS had been designed as a space exploration craft and all previous human spacecraft were basically made of tissue paper, highly heat resistant tissue paper but still tissue paper."

Natasha paused and took a breath there and kept reciting, "About a year after the IS was introduced someone, it was never proven who, remotely took control of and launched 2,341 Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles at Japan," she paused there, "Did I lose you anywhere?"

Sakamoto shook her head, "No, I've got most of it and I can infer the rest. 2,341 of anything is generally a bad thing."

"So there were 2,341 missiles and nobody in the world could stop more than a handful. Suddenly a flying woman in full Silver White armor appeared, with even her face completely covered. The world could only watch as she took a sword, one sword, and killed half of the missiles with it. Then she took a particle beam, which is basically a ray-gun, and killed the other half of them."

"To say that what happened was unexpected is still one of the greatest understatement's of the century. To that date no one, not even the US which spent more on their military than the next TEN top spending countries combined, had even attempted to field a working particle cannon. So everyone with the power to do so immediately "Investigated" the incident, which meant that every military asset with the range to reach it was sent," Natasha stopped for a bit to let Sakamoto digest what she had said.

"That seems...Ill advised," Said Sakamoto looking pensive, "If it was that powerful then what did they expect to do to it?"

Natasha shook her head, "Capture it probably, no one below cabinet level is even sure what actually happened. What is certain is that the US had two, and the French, Indian's and Chinese had a carrier close enough to launch fighters, which they all did. These were some of the best planes on the planet. They couldn't do anything to the suit. Fighters turn fast, but the suit could literally do a tap dance on a pin-head in mid air. Missiles launched at it were dodged or shot down by the particle beam. When they closed in to gun range it could still dodge. But there were eventually two hundred fighters after it and it couldn't dodge them all."

"I take it that it didn't turn out well for the suit?" asked Sakamoto.

Natasha shook her head and laughed, "Far from it actually. It had clearly been playing with the fighters, but once they reached a certain number they simply filled the air with missiles and cannon shells. It didn't matter, nothing could damage it. It shrugged off missile blasts and cannon shells with equal impunity. Then it started fighting back. It took out 207 fighter planes with no problem. And when the ships they launched from closed in it disabled all five carriers and seven escort cruisers, as well as taking out 8 surveillance satellites before it simply disappeared. There were no deaths."

Sakamoto's jaw dropped at that, "WHAT? Two HUNDRED planes and twelve ships and nobody got killed?!"

"Well that's the official story at least, the one that Ichika knows and would swear to you is true," said Natasha, "It was released shortly before the world got together and regulated the use of the IS. But since I got into the US IS program I learned more of what actually happened. We know at least ten deaths occurred, most from various accidents that happen in a warzone, but it's confirmed that the IS pilot was responsible for at least one, though it was most definitely an accident. We have it on gun camera footage recovered from some wreckage. Besides that, through testing we've been able to determine that the missiles and cannon shells _can_ damage an IS. It just takes an ungodly amount of them and in the meantime the IS would be casually tearing apart the entire strike force, ships and all."

Sakamoto sat and just absorbed the magnitude of what she had just heard. "So," she started slowly then picked up to incredulity, "Let me get this straight, in your world you have machines that can tear through entire armies by themselves, without taking any noticeable damage."

"Basically," said Natasha in a neutral tone.

"Then why does that boy have one?" Sakamoto asked in a tone that somehow wanted to be neutral and scream in confusion at the same time, "He can't be more than eighteen. That just seems…irresponsible to me."

Natasha sighed, "You and I agree on that," She said in a tired tone, "But there are a couple of things that override any age consideration." She paused when Sakamoto gave her a look, "What?" she said, "I didn't say I agreed with them just that they were the reasons."

Sakamoto paused a moment then nodded in acknowledgement.

Natasha continued after the nod, "The first reason is that each IS has a unique "core" that is the basis of the machine and develops along with the pilot. There are production model IS's that have the same basic characteristics and weapons, but each one works better depending on the core and how synced it is with the pilot."

She continued speaking in an informative tone after taking a breath, "However there are many individual IS suits, like mine and Ichika's. These also learn by syncing with the pilot, but the end result is different. When they reach a certain level of synchronization they "Shift" or change form, that's what you saw in the replay when mine and Ichika's suits transformed. This not only improves performance but usually adds new weapons and abilities. So that's one reason why we want younger users, more time in the suits gives a better suit."

Sakamoto nodded in acknowledgement, "I can see that, but why not use older one's anyway? You said they'd been around for almost a decade, so why not have machine's that have been around for a decade?"

Natasha grinned before going back to being serious, "You'd think right? But again a couple reasons for that, one is simple, plain old technologic development. Every year there's more and more tech so you can't have ten year old machine's they just get left behind. The other ties into the next big reason, which I assume you want to hear right?"

Sakamoto just nodded an affirmative.

"Well," Natasha said," remember when I said that Professor Shinonono developed the IS?" Sakamoto nodded, "Well, despite the entire world's best efforts and trillions of dollars, nobody else can make an IS core and she only deigned to make about 450 of them."

Sakamoto interrupted her at that point, "Wait wait wait," she said, waving her hands, "How is that even possible?! I mean she's the ONLY ONE? That just doesn't make sense!"

"You'd think so right?" agreed Natasha, "But the IS core is a Black Box, which means not even the Professor is entirely sure how it does what it does. And since she doesn't want to make anymore, we have to use what we have."

"That explains why you were so surprised when you were attacked by six other units," said Sakamoto coming to an understanding, "That's a huge number when you only have 450 worldwide."

"Yeah," agreed Natasha, "But actually there's actually only around 300 active units, the rest are in various states of disassembly or being experimented on by various corporations, so that's 2% by number, but the six units that attacked me and the Gospel are all high end units or prototypes, so the theoretical potential is probably up near 10%."

Sakamoto just shook her head, "That just seems…unbelievable," she said in a low tone. Looking up she asked, "So do you think your…shift? Was what made you come here?"

"It's all I've got," said Natasha, "It was probably some kind of last ditch escape mechanism that came from the shift. Other than that I'm as blind as you."

"Ok so we'll go with that," says Sakamoto slipping into a more businesslike mode as she contemplates what all the new data means, "So does that mean we should be on the lookout for the other five?"

"Crap," said Natasha, "I hadn't even thought of that. I would guess so; they weren't more than a couple feet away from me. Here let me see…" with that she brought up her interface again and started typing. A couple seconds later a still image appeared on the screen.

It showed a view of five girls from a low angle. One in red armor with brown hair was by herself leaning on a sword apparently the farthest away but not by more than a foot. Two her left, right in the picture, a small girl with purple armor and brown hair was being supported by a blonde haired girl in orange armor. Finally next to them and apparently closest to the shot were a pale haired girl in black armor and another blond in blue who were leaning on each other.

"I take it those are the others that attacked you?" asked Sakamoto studying the picture closely.

"Yeah," said Natasha, also staring at the picture, "And what a lineup that is. We've got an all-star cast here."

"What do you mean?" asked Sakamoto, glancing at Natasha before going back to looking at the picture.

"What I mean," said Natasha seriously, "Is that with the replay I just had raw data, with this I know exactly who they are." She pointed at the blonde in the Blue Armor, "Cecilia Alcott, British Representative Candidate, pilot of the 3rd Generation IS Blue Tears." Glancing at Sakamoto she clarified, "A 3rd generation craft is the cutting edge of technology and a Representative Candidate is basically the country's pilot with the biggest amount of raw talent." After a quick pause she said quietly, "I'm America's."

She quickly pointed to the pale girl next to Cecilia, "Laura Bodewig, German Representative Candidate, member of the German Army's IS squad, pilot of the 3rd generation IS Schwarzer Regen." Next the orange armor, "Charlotte Dunois, Representative Candidate of France, Pilots a highly customized late 2nd generation Raphael Revive Custom II." Purple armor, "Lingyin Huang, Representative Candidate from China, Pilots the 3rd generation IS Shenlong." Finally she pointed to the girl in the red, "Houki Shinonono, sister of Professor Tabane Shinonono. I have no idea what that IS is but I'm pretty sure it was the one with the insane speed, making it a definite 3rd generation machine."

Sakamoto had listened carefully to the whole explanation and nodded when Natasha finished. After putting her hand on her chin to think she said, "Why are they all girls?"

Natasha's face immediately gained a look that said "I'm an idiot" and she smacked her forehead. "How could I forget that part?" she muttered. Turning to Sakamoto she said, "IS's can only be piloted by females." Sakamoto looked at her funny and her mouth was even opening when Natasha interrupted waving her hands. "I know I know!" she said hastily, "But besides Ichika there are absolutely no men that can pilot an IS. Trust me; they went through just about every man in the US military after Ichika appeared just to double check."

Sakamoto paused, and then said, "What can you tell me about Ichika?"

Natasha paused, then turned and brought up an image of Ichika. "Ichika Orimura," she started in a voice that was part teacher lecturing part amusement and part mild amazement, "Age 16, height, approximately 5'9, weighs a fit 150lbs. Only known male able to get an IS to do anything, much less pilot it. Other than his ability to pilot an IS he's not really special. He's got A range grades, but he works hard for them. He's got a decent amount of Kendo training," she got a small rise and a grin out of Sakamoto from that.

Natasha continued from there, "Other than that there are two things remarkable about him. One is his sister, Chifuyu Orimura. She is quite remarkable, first winner of the Mondo Gross and favored winner of the second." Glancing at Sakamoto's questioning eyebrow's she added, "The Gross is kind of like the IS Olympics and the only reason she lost the second was because she forfeited. Intel isn't certain but evidence points to her dropping out to rescue Ichika from kidnappers but we've got nothing solid. She's currently a teacher at the IS academy and supposedly a confidant of Professor Shinonono."

Pausing she rocked back and forth once or twice before continuing, "The next isn't quite relevant but our Intel department noted it so it's something that should be said. He…he has a way with girls. Of these five girls," she brought back up the picture of the five girls, "Four of them had issues with him at one point or another. Alcott," she pointed at the British girl, "Was initially hostile to Orimura and fought him in an IS battle which she narrowly won."

Continuing she pointed to Lingyin, "Shortly after she arrived she also became hostile to him and also fought him in a battle, which was interrupted by an unknown IS. Dunois was planted as a spy by her father and his corporation to get data on Orimura. Bodewig came into the school hostile to him and initiated several incidents with him. They had a final confrontation in a school team battle that also involved Dunois and Shinonono. Bodewig was defeated by Orimura and Dunois. Afterwards she also activated some forbidden technology and caused an incident but was defeated by Orimura."

She sighed and continued, "After all of these incident's the girls in question became very close friends with Orimura. Our informant's tell us that most if not all of them also seem to have romantic feelings for him. Normally this wouldn't be considered anything but all of these girls have extremely strong personalities and are important for each of their countries so it's been noted." She laughed at that, "Actually I'm not even sure why I'm telling you this besides the fact that it was in the briefing."

Sakamoto looked at her with a blank expression for a couple seconds before bursting out in laughter. Natasha looked at her in askance for a couple seconds before managing to sputter out, "Wha what are you laughing about?!"

Sakamoto put out her hand and kept laughing for a minute before managing to stop sputtering. "Oooh nothing," she said before bursting out laughing, "It's just that, haha, I'm really glad you told me about that, hahaha."

"How is this in any way relevant?!" asked Natasha confusedly.

"Oh for several reasons," said Sakamoto, finally getting over her laughter but still holding mirth in her voice, "The main one being that I was going to take you with me when I debarked and hide you at my base."

"So?" asked Natasha still confused.

"I'm a Witch right?" Sakamoto asked and Natasha nodded, "That means it's a Witches base and therefore more Witches," Natasha still looked confused, "And they are all younger than me and dress similar!" Natasha's face finally dawned in comprehension.

She again sputtered, "Sssso you mean to tell me, that we're taking a boy who, whether he knows it or not, attracts females like a plague and dropping him in a base full of half-naked girls?"

"Yep!" said Sakamoto, again laughing, "And they're all cute and unattached too, hahahahaha."

"So how many girls are there anyway?" asked Natasha a little worried about what might happen when they got there.

"Including me and Yoshika there'll be eleven," Sakamoto choked out stifling her laughter again. "But I doubt he'll have to worry about all of us, especially Lucchini since she's only twelve."

"Wait!" said Natasha, "TWELVE!? IN THE MILITARY!?"

She was about to go on but Sakamoto put her hand over her mouth to quiet her, "Yes twelve," she said, all humor gone, "Now quiet down and let me explain." At that point she took her hand off Natasha's mouth.

"Fine," said Natasha in a quiet angry voice, "but it better be a damn good explanation."

"Trust me it is," said Sakamoto in a serious voice. "You remember that thing that Ichika destroyed?" she asked in a flat tone.

"Yeah," said Natasha, "The big ugly flying brick right?"

"Yeah," said Sakamoto in a tone that left no room for anything but seriousness, "Well it and all its friends are invading Earth and we're having a hard time stopping them."

"Wait what?" said Natasha in a shocked tone, "They're invading Earth? Did I hear you right?"

"Yeah," said Sakamoto in the same voice, "You heard me right."

"When did this happen?" asked Natasha, mildly stunned but believing all the same.

"December 7th 1941 is when the Martians showed up in force," said Sakamoto. She raised her hand at Natasha's start, "Yes they are actually Martians, and we confirmed that via telescope. At that time Japan was about to attack Pearl Harbor, Germany was in the middle of attacking Moscow and Rommel was fighting Montgomery across most of North Africa."

"Well that at least sounds familiar," said Natasha, "Minus the attacking Martians of course. What exactly happened though and why is it so bad?"

"Well," said Sakamoto, "Like I said the Martians showed up on December 7th. They hit all the Capitals; Washington, London, Berlin, Moscow, Tokyo, they all got hit hard. They also dropped forces on some of the major production centers; the US got the worst of those. Almost all of the attacks happened around 4:00 AM, they certainly knew when we'd be easiest to hit. But they apparently didn't know or care about time zones, some of the places that got hit had several hours warning before they got hit."

"Even when they did get warning we still got hurt. They have some tech that we just don't understand and at first we had no idea how to counter them. But we fought them off," she shook her head, then let out a feral grin, "It was bad, but they didn't know what to do about Witches, they apparently hadn't noticed us or they didn't care. So wherever they dropped and Witches were in force they got their asses chewed."

"You have any examples?" asked Natasha, "You haven't really talked about Witches at all and I'm curious."

"Heh," said Sakamoto, "I've got plenty of examples, lived through a few myself. But the best comparison I can give you is this one. In Germany Hitler had sent away all of his Witches to the frontlines because he didn't like the power we wield, since he couldn't control us we were dangerous. Berlin was probably the worst hit Capital; they leveled the Reichstag, killed Hitler and most of the Nazi leadership cadre. They got driven off by the Germans 88's but it was still bad, Admiral Dönitz is in charge now I think."

"Counter examples are London and Washington. London's case isn't as definite since Britain's so small and they were still fighting the Germans over the channel but Washington's is. At the time they weren't at all prepared for fighting but they had almost all their high ranking Witches in the Capital for some conferences. In both cases the damage wasn't to Berlin's half leveled state but more the aftermath of a series of heavy bomber raids."

"What about Moscow and Tokyo?" asked Natasha, following her training and going for more intel.

Sakamoto sighed, "Those were both pretty bad but they had different reasons. Japan's was pretty simple though, we had absolutely no defenses prepared. Tokyo was the worst hit since it was the Capital. The only effective defense they had was the Navy, Admiral Yamamoto and the Yamato were docked in the bay along with some escorts and their two spotter Witches, Etou Toshiko and Kuroe Ayaka, both of whom I know. According to them it was hell on earth. The Martian's have some kind of heat ray, the egg-heads call it a maser, and they lit the city on fire with them. Neither of them are sure how they got out of it alive but they did, right after the Yamato dropped a salvo on the IJA headquarters."

Natasha almost questioned Sakamoto's almost unnoticeable grin but remembered her history lessons about WWII and decided she agreed with her.

Sakamoto continued reciting, eye almost glazed over like she wasn't there. "Moscow was different because there were two armies there. Since your world is apparently similar you know how brutal that battle was, both sides were on a hair-trigger. The aliens dropped what was probably the largest attack force right on top of them and the city. All the reports say it was chaos. The aliens even got to Stalin, though they say he's still alive. At first everyone shot at everyone else and casualties were massive. But eventually the humans stopped fighting each other and focused on the aliens."

Sakamoto took a breath there, "The best example that I know of is Hannah Rudel. She was a ground attack Witch that got shot down and crash landed in a trench with some dead Russians. All she knows is that the aliens are coming and they're worse than the damn Russkies. She was about to end it with her sidearm when a crazy Russian named Dmitry Lavrinenko parked his T-34 over her." Sakamoto paused there, complex emotions running over her face, "Five hours later and with the rest of his crew dead his position was relieved by the 3rd Panzer and he died shortly after, but they managed to save Rudel. According to the newsies that was when WWII ended and the alien war began," a dry laugh, "WWII was over the second the Martians hit the ground."

Natasha absorbed more than just the words, she watched Sakamoto's face. From the expressions she had, from blankness to almost rage, Natasha gathered a lot. The fact that the woman in front of her, despite probably being no more than equal to her in age, had seen things that she hadn't imagined in her worst nightmare and probably done things she'd never thought possible. Despite that she saw a strong woman, one prepared to do her duty no matter what. She was a woman that would bend but not break a person who knew her place in the world and wasn't scared of it. There was more, but that was for later, the details and fluff that went along with being a person. Natasha knew, at her core, that she could trust Mio Sakamoto as a person, comrade and if the winds blew that way, a friend.

"Where were you?" asked Natasha in a quiet tone, one that only asked as a person and left room for refusal.

"Ha," came a dry chuckle from Sakamoto, "I appreciate the concern but don't worry about me, I got over any issues I had a long time ago." Continuing in a tone that contained something like wry amusement she said, "I was actually in Nagumo's strike force, getting ready to hit Pearl Harbor, which all things considered turned out to be one of the better places to be."

"That seems…odd actually," said Natasha, "I would've thought it would end up like Moscow, humans fighting humans fighting aliens."

"You'd thing right?" Sakamoto half laughed, "But there were a couple things going for Pearl Harbor that Moscow didn't have. The first and major one was that we and the American's weren't technically at war." Seeing Natasha's wry face Sakamoto laughed again, "Don't give me that look Ms. Fairs I know what you're thinking and I probably even agree with you. But trust me, there's a very large difference between knowing war is likely and having slugged it out for five months in some of the most hellish fighting the world has ever seen."

Natasha nodded in agreement and Sakamoto continued, "The next biggest thing that Pearl had going for it was its distance from Washington and the prior warning they got. The bases were already on a hair trigger thanks to the tension between our countries and the radio disruption, but when they got a call from some B-17's that said they were being attacked by strange fighters they managed to get a lot of their fighters in the air and get the ships ammo lockers open despite their crews being on leave. Despite their efforts a lot of the Americans ships were holed pretty badly but their efforts let them weather the first attack mostly intact."

"What about the strike group?" asked Natasha.

"I'm getting there," said Sakamoto, "We were about a hundred miles out from Pearl and right in the middle of preparations for the attack when the aliens dropped in," she shook her head, "We barely managed to get the CAP in the air before they hit. I was getting ready for air-superiority on the hangar deck when they did hit." She paused there, thinking, "I'd always known Admiral Nagumo was a wily old fox but he was in top form that day. I thought he'd gone crazy when he ordered my flight of witches and all the fighters to head to Pearl but we arrived just in time to help the Americans fight off the second wave of aliens. I wouldn't say we saved their asses but they certainly appreciated the help."

"The rest of the strike-group had split while we flew to Pearl. The carriers were all booking it towards the base with seven of the destroyers and the three cruisers. Meanwhile the _Hiei _and _Kirishima_ had stayed back to hold off the Martian dreadnaughts along with the other six destroyers. They lasted for a couple hours but eventually they succumbed to the Martians and ordered off their destroyers. Before they sank completely the _Arizona, _arrived to help, taking on all three remaining dreadnaughts. It did ok but it took several big hits in under five minutes and started to sink but the _West Virginia_ showed up soon after with four destroyers and managed to sink all of them with its new 16 inch guns in short order and saved the _Arizona _by taking it under tow."

At that point Sakamoto laughed again, "You should've seen the look on Admiral Kimmel's face when Nagumo told him straight to his face that we were on a training exercise to test fleet logistics. I was in the meeting as the senior Japanese Witch and Jane Thach was there for the Americans. When Nagumo said that with a straight face and we saw Kimmels reaction we both almost burst out laughing." Sakamoto sobered up a little after that, "It was a lie of course but in the end it didn't really matter why we were there, just that we all managed to save each other's asses then and for the next couple weeks."

Natasha just sat and absorbed all the information that Sakamoto had given her, not having anything to say.

"After the initial invasion they seemed to focus their drops more. The US had managed to take out all the major concentrations on their soil thanks mostly to their witches as did China. Britain and Russia managed it through a combination of Witches and their home deployed forces. But Europe and Japan couldn't. Japan was bad enough, the Army had a horrible time getting the Kyoto defense line set up, but in Europe it was worse. Germany had taken out the French forces and they had all their Witches forward deployed so there was nothing organized enough to stop them."

Sakamoto shook her head at that, "What military forces there were did their best but nothing could stop the Martians and what they do to people is just…indescribable." The look on her face was something that Natasha had never seen before, combining revulsion and horror into something even worse. Sakamoto took a breath and shuddered before continuing, "Despite their forces about facing and trying to stop the Martians it quickly turned into a fighting retreat to save as many civilians as they could."

"Did anyone try and help?" asked Natasha softly.

Sakamoto shook her head sadly, "No, not at first. Things were too confused, nobody knew what was going on anywhere and everyone wanted everything at home to protect them. It took a while before believable reports made it to anyone in charge and by then it was too late. In the east the Martians hit too hard and too fast, the Russians didn't or couldn't help. Most of the German forces were forced to retreat to the Balkan pocket and reinforced its lines."

"Wait, what's the Balkan pocket?" asked Natasha, "I've never heard of that."

"Oh," said Sakamoto, "I guess you wouldn't have thinking about it. The Balkan pocket was formed by the Polish armed forces in exile after the Germans invaded. They couldn't stop the German Blitzkrieg but the Poles had a larger and excellently trained Witch corps that let them withdraw most of their forces intact to the Baltic."

Natasha nodded, "So what about Britain and the west?"

"The most they could do was to send some Witches and speed up the evacuation," said Sakamoto, "The US was still finishing up taking care of their Hemisphere and Britain hadn't recovered from Dunkirk. The Germans eventually set up a perimeter around Calais and they were running everything they could between there and Dover, just like Dunkirk except this time the Germans were helping." Sakamoto's face was grave as she spoke, belying how much suffering had gone on, "They managed to get all the civilians and Witches out along with a decent number of troops before it collapsed."

"And that's why you have twelve year olds fighting," said Natasha.

"And that's why we have twelve year olds fighting," agreed Sakamoto. "Witches are our best line of defense and attack, our most mobile forces and consume fewer resources than any comparable non-magical force. There are just not enough of us. We don't lose many, only eight dead since the war started, but there are so many places we're needed we can barely cover them all."

Sakamoto finished speaking and sat in silence for a minute before checking her watch and standing up. "If there's nothing else immediate," she said with a small grin trying to dispel the morose mood, "I should go and report the situation to Captain Hasegawa before he decides I should be shot for insubordination."

"That would be bad," said Natasha with a grin, "So please go do what you need to do."

"Do you want to stay here?" asked Sakamoto, "Or should I take you to visit your boyfriend?" Sakamoto highly enjoyed the stunned look that froze on Natasha's face for several seconds.

"He's like sixteen!" Natasha finally managed to sputter out, "And where the hell did you get the idea he was my boyfriend!"

"I didn't actually," said Sakamoto with a giant grin that could only be described as "Shit Eating", "I just wanted to see how you would react. Besides how old are you? Maybe twenty?"

"So?" said Natasha defensively, "That's still four years! And how old are you anyway?!"

"I'm nineteen," said Sakamoto. That number stunned Natasha into silence, Sakamoto had seemed…older somehow. But now that she thought about it she had been at war for years so that made sense.

Sakamoto seemed to not notice Natasha's silence and kept talking lightheartedly. "But that's not the point, if you were 24 and he was 20 you'd be all over that."

"Wha…how do you get that?" said Natasha, "I barely even know the kid!"

"Just look at the kid," said Sakamoto, "He's not done growing yet but he's already developing that look, manly but just pretty enough to offset it. He's obviously athletic, quick on his feet and probably intelligent. What's not to like?"

Natasha sat there with a blank face, not acknowledging Sakamoto's points but not denying them either.

"Fine," said Sakamoto playfully, "Be like that. But I'm not telling you the number one reason then."

Natasha's face twitched at that but she still didn't say anything.

"Fine," said Sakamoto, "But on a serious note you really should check on him."

Natasha glanced up at that, "Why?" she asked, "I mean I will, he saved me and all that, but it's not like he actually knows me."

Sakamoto shook her head in the negative, "None of that actually matters. Remember when we were flying back and he didn't quite get that where you were was unusual? He doesn't know where he is, how he got here or what's going on. So he's going to reach for whatever he can to support him. And the best option for that is you."

"But why me?" asked Natasha, "I still don't get your reasoning."

"It's easy really," said Sakamoto, "When you're lost and alone you want something familiar. You're from his world and that'll make it easier for you to get along. Besides," she said honestly, "you're probably going to need some help too. You just haven't had time for it to sink in yet. It'll be good for you both to have something…more familiar to lean on."

Natasha sat and thought about what Sakamoto said, including the things about her. It was unfortunately highly accurate and probably all true. She'd had enough training to recognize possible PTSD situations and this one had warnings pasted all over it.

"I get your point," she said, "And you're probably right. So I'll go visit him." Glancing up she said jokingly with a glare, "This better not be an elaborate ruse to try and get me to hook up with him though."

Sakamoto just laughed at that, wholeheartedly and with enthusiasm. "No," she said happily, "Nothing like that, but you better watch him when we get to Castle Barin or the girls are going to eat him alive."

"I'll be careful," said Natasha playfully, "Now take me to the damn infirmary."

Laughing as she went Sakamoto left the room and Natasha followed.

_OOC: I'm not actually all that happy with this chapter, it's a lot of info-dump and not much progression but I couldn't see any other way to make it advance logically in the direction I want. Anyway hope you enjoyed it, please review and send any questions you have my way, you guys are a lot of the reason this is getting done. See you next time!_


	4. In Witch we meet more Witches

_OOC: Hello faithful readers! I hope you're happy with today's update. It should basically double the actual content of the story! Anyway, I worked hard to get this to you guys, but now I have to deliver bad news. I have roughly three papers due in the next several weeks so I likely wont get much work done on the next chapter until after the 11th. Sorry about that but I do have this thing called school to deal with. Anyway, please enjoy Ichika and friends new adventures and await the next update._

_Also, I've just realized this but I really need a beta reader or two. Anyone experienced and interested please PM me. _

_I do not own any of the characters from Infinite Stratos, Strike Witches or anything from those universes. _

Infinite Strike Witches Chapter 4

In Witch we meet more Witches.

As Natasha and Sakamoto stepped into the infirmary the first thing that they saw was a kindly looking older man wearing a doctors coat sitting at his desk apparently doing some paperwork. Looking up when they entered the room he immediately stood and gave a slight bow.

"Major Sakamoto," he said as he bowed, "It's good to see you in one piece, for a while there I thought I might have to stitch you back together again. And this must be our other new visitor that I've heard about."

Sakamoto gave a slight chuckle, "Sorry to disappoint you doctor but not this time." Turning to Natasha she said, "Natasha this is Doctor Ichegawa, one of the best surgeons in the business. Doctor Ichegawa, Natasha Fairs."

"How do you do?" said Natasha, inclining her head politely.

"Very well thank you," answered the doctor. Turning back to Sakamoto he said, "I assume you're here to check up on my latest charge?"

"Not me," said Sakamoto, gesturing over her shoulder with her thumb she said, "Miss Fairs here was going to check up on him though. And I was wondering if you might let her spend the night here seeing as how we're only a day or so out and finding a bunk would be a pain."

"That is not a problem on either account," said Ichegawa. Gesturing to the mostly empty beds he said, "There haven't been any major injuries for me to deal with so you can pick whichever one you like. If you would like some privacy I would suggest the one over by your friend," he said pointing over to the corner where a small privacy curtain had been erected, "There is another bed in there where you won't be disturbed. I can have dinner brought up for you as well; I usually eat here anyway so it's not a problem."

"You are much to kind," said Natasha again inclining her head in thankfulness.

"Not at all," said the doctor, "It is part of my job." Turning to Sakamoto he said, "Was there anything else you needed Major?"

"Not today doctor thank you," she said shaking her head, "I've got to go report to Captain Hasegawa before he decides I need to have an honorable death."

"We most certainly wouldn't want that," said the doctor cheerfully.

Turning to Natasha Sakamoto said, "I'll be back to check on both of you in a while but I've got to go deal with my duties now. You'll be ok?"

Natasha made a shooing motion with her hands as she said, "I'll be fine I'm a big girl. Go deal with whatever it is that needs done. Besides," she said jokingly, "If I get in real trouble I'll just wake up the Knight in Shining Armor over there."

"Fine fine, I'm leaving," said Sakamoto with a chuckle as she headed for the hatch, "I'll be back in a couple hours." And with that Sakamoto left and headed for the bridge.

Natasha turned and headed over to the far corner of the room. Dodging the various medical implements she opened one of the curtains separating the corner from the rest of the room. Inside she found an interesting sight. Ichika was lying on the bed like she expected, looking relatively peaceful as he slept covered by the sheet. The unexpected part was Yoshika, sitting in a small chair with her head on Ichika's bed, drooling slightly and apparently fast asleep.

Glancing back at the doctor she saw him back at his paperwork, apparently oblivious to the world. Shaking her head she stepped inside and closed the curtain. Turning she saw Yoshika start to wake, apparently at the sound of the drawn curtain.

"Wha…" said the girl waking up slowly and rubbing her eyes, "Doctor Ichegawa?" Her eyes widened as she saw Natasha. "Oh M-miss Fairs!" she said nervously, turning slightly red, "I-I was just keeping watch on Ichika-s-senpai in case he woke up!"

Natasha inwardly couldn't decide whether to chuckle or groan. The boy hadn't been in this new world more than a few hours and already there was a girl with a serious case of hero worship.

"That's fine Yoshika," she said with a kind smile, "I'm sure he'd appreciate it."

Calming down at Natasha's words and lack of concern over her being there Yoshika's buoyant personality came back to the fore and she immediately started talking. "You're here to see Ichika Sempai too right?" she said cheerfully, "Doctor Ichegawa said he was just tired and needed some rest so not to worry."

"That's good," said Natasha, "I was a little worried when he collapsed like that."

"Me too!" said Yoshika, "I mean when we were flying he seemed just fine! And then he just dropped! He must've gotten tired from all the flying around I guess."

"Probably," said Natasha, not wanting to try and explain the differences between the worlds to the young girl.

"And he flew so fast when he went after those Martians!" Yoshika said excitedly, "I mean I've heard stories and saw Major Sakamoto fly before but senpai was just gone! Like one second he was above it and the next second he was below! And he even caught you and Major Sakamoto! In midair! That was amazing!"

"Yeah," said Natasha gazing at the slumbering face of her multi-time savior, "Yeah that was pretty amazing wasn't it. Hey Yoshika," Natasha said, interrupting the small girls continuing rant on the amazingness of one Ichika Orimura, "Why are you here?"

"What do you mean?" asked Yoshika, momentarily taken aback by the question, "I was here to watch over Ichika senpai."

"No not that," said Natasha, "Why are you on this aircraft carrier in the middle of a war?"

"Oh," said Yoshika, becoming smaller, tilting her head down and hunching over her shoulders. "I'm…I'm here because of a promise," she said softly, almost embarrassed.

"A promise?" asked Natasha, looking over to the girl, seeing her short brown hair hang over her eyes, "That must be one heck of a promise to go to war."

"It was a promise to my dad," said Yoshika, "He was a Striker designer, back before the Martians came. He made me promise to only use my power for good. Back then," she said, her voice going up in volume but becoming more vulnerable, "Back then I thought that meant only using it for healing, like my mother and grandmother. I was going to be a doctor just like them. But…but then they came."

Yoshika sniffed at that and looked up at Natasha, tears at the corner of her eyes, "It was horrible," she said her voice suddenly small and wavery, "They landed right in the middle of our village, I don't know how many but probably just a few." She sniffed again, "But I was so scared," she said, "So very scared. I was at the clinic with my grandmother when they landed; I remember she was trying to teach me to control my power so that I could heal better. We heard the crash and ran outside to check…" Yoshika stopped there, choked up on emotion.

Realizing they had veered into dangerous territory Natasha moved forward and embraced the girl, kneeling so she could lay her head on her shoulder, "It's ok Yoshika," she said softly, something like motherly instinct kicking in as the girl sobbed on her shoulder, "It's ok, you don't have to tell me anymore. I'm sorry I brought it up, you can stop now."

Struggling mightily within herself, the young girl pushed herself away from Natasha, "N-n-n-n-o," she said, stubbornly wiping away tears from her eyes, "I *hiccup* I have to be able to tell p-people about it."

Sitting back on her knees Natasha took the girls shoulders in her hands and looked into her puffy eyes, "I understand," she said calmly, firmly, "If it's something you have to do then you have to do it." Wiping away a tear with her left hand she continued, "But take your time. I'm sure there'll be plenty of time for you to tell me, O.K.?"

Yoshika nodded shakily, "O.K.," she said in a small voice, "I guess…I guess I'm not ready to tell that one yet."

"And that's fine," said Natasha smiling at the girl, "Now how about you show me one of those big smiles you had when you were talking about Ichika?"

Yoshika's face was still red and she hadn't quite stopped sniffing but she managed a passable imitation of a smile.

"There's a good girl," said Natasha as she ruffled Yoshika's hair, "Now why don't you go wash your face and clean up, we wouldn't want Ichika or the Major to see you like this, would we?"

Yoshika shook her head in the negative sniffles finally dying out. Standing up she headed for the curtain, stopping as her hand moved it a little. "Thank you, Miss Fairs," she said softly, not quite looking at the American woman, "And please don't tell the Major about this, she'd be disappointed."

"I won't tell anyone Yoshika," said Natasha sincerely, "And since we're friends, why don't you call me Natasha."

"O-o.k.," said Yoshika embarrassedly. "T-thank you Natasha," she said with a small smile, a real one this time. With that Yoshika left, the tail end of her sailor uniform billowing slightly behind her as she went.

Once she was certain Yoshika was gone Natasha collapsed onto the small chair the girl had been sitting on. Sighing she looked over at the still slumbering Ichika.

"I can already tell this is going to be great," she said to her unknowing companion, "A whole castle full of happy fun times like that. Still," she said almost wistfully, glancing back at the curtain and then back to Ichika, "If you can turn a girl like Bodewig from plain crazy to just crazy over you, between the two of us we might just have them beat."

It was then that the long ordeal she had been through hit Natasha. The change in worlds, the talk with Sakamoto, and dealing with Yoshika, all of that and more caught up with her in an instant. Suddenly feeling very tired and a little lonely she stood up. Or at least she tried too before she wobbled hard and had to grab the edge of Ichika's bed to stay upright. Glancing over to the other bed, the few feet separating her from it seemed impossibly far. Looking over her shoulder at the sleeping Ichika she muttered under her breath, "Sakamoto is going to give me SO much shit over this."

Lifting the sheet just a little at first to make sure the doctor hadn't undressed the boy she gently moved the sheet down so she could crawl in. With that she simply leaned over and let her head rest on his shoulder as her legs followed her into the bed and she pulled up the sheet. During the whole process Ichika only stirred the slightest bit. Her last conscious thought as she slipped into a deep sleep was that Ichika felt very warm.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Major Sakamoto braced herself as she prepared to knock on Captain Hasegawa's door. After leaving her two guests in the infirmary she had gone to the bridge, only to be informed that the Captain had retired to his cabin and would be awaiting her there. Sakamoto reviewed what she knew about the Captain.

Kiichi Hasegawa; born on April 15, 1894, Graduated 27th from his IJN Academy class. He had initially served mainly on cruisers and battleships as an artillery and torpedo officer. In 1922 he had attended pilot training school alongside several Witches. From then on he was in the air track, seaplane carriers, naval air commands and finally exec on the Ryujo after a stint as a Naval Attaché in Washington where he had to deal with American Witches on an almost daily basis, no complaints from either side.

In 1939 he was given command of the Ryujo, which he held until being given command of the Akagi in 1941 for his exceptional ability at using Witches alongside conventional aircraft. During the initial battle at Pearl Harbor and the subsequent engagements he had been an essential cog in the machine, helping both sides get along and continuing his brilliant appreciation of Witches abilities. Sakamoto knew, she had been there with him and executed some of his plans.

He should have been promoted to Rear Admiral already but a paperwork screw up had listed him as dead after a near miss in the closing stages of the Siege of Pearl Harbor and that had yet to be resolved though the scuttlebutt had him being promoted to Rear Admiral as soon as they got to Portsmouth and the ships were in dock.

In short he was probably one of the closest things to a progressive in the entire Japanese military and was likely to support her as long as she was honest. Sighing she braced herself and knocked firmly on the door. "Major Sakamoto to see Captain Hasegawa," she said in her most professional voice.

A beat ticked by before she heard a single word, "Enter."

Sakamoto opened the door and stepped through. Glancing around she saw what she thought she would, a room a little bigger than hers, a desk, bed, wardrobe and a small personal shrine. The Captain was seated behind his desk looking at what appeared to be a report on the battle she had just fought. Marching over to the front of his desk she stood at attention and snapped of a near perfect salute, "Major Sakamoto is reporting as ordered sir!" she said.

Setting down the report Hasegawa looked at her for a moment before returning the salute. Sitting forward in his chair he glanced at the small clock that sat on his desk, "By my clock you are approximately an hour and a half late major," he said in a cool voice. "Now I hope you can explain to me why this is and why," he said gesturing at the report, "I have several different reports on what happened along with a very nervous lieutenant who said you were working on Witch Council Business."

"Sir," said Sakamoto, "I believe I can explain sir."

"Then please do," said the Captain, his voice thawing slightly.

Sakamoto explained, as briefly as she could, what she understood of the situation. The full truth, world traveling and awesome technology included. As she talked Hasegawa's face went through various stages, skeptical, disbelieving, dumbfounded almost all the various permutations of a human not wanting to believe what they were hearing. However as Sakamoto finished her report his face had taken on the distinct look of somebody who really wanted a very strong drink, which is exactly what he did.

As Sakamoto finished he reached into his desk and pulled out a glass and a bottle of good sake. He poured himself one and drank it before speaking. "Major Sakamoto," he started, looking up into the woman's one good eye, "I would like to say that I have never heard a more ridiculous sounding story in my life. Unfortunately that was before the Earth was invaded by Martians and the two of us ended up fighting for our lives in a base that we had been planning to destroy not hours earlier."

Sighing he stood up and looked out the porthole that was located in the wall behind him. "Due to our previous time serving together and your story hanging together entirely too well for my liking, despite the many unanswered questions, I really have no choice but to believe you." Striding back to his desk he picked up the report on it a glanced at it. "Otherwise," he said, showing the report to her, "I'd have to believe that you somehow flew home with no Striker Unit and that most of my deck crew hallucinated a young man with disappearing white armor."

"And," he said, sitting back down, "While no one outside this room will ever hear this, I approve of you invoking the Witch Council on this. The military and political high command would have no idea what to do with these people and I'm sure some in the military would just as soon see them jailed or," he paused significantly, thinking over implications, "Or I could see them trying to use both of them if what you say is true. And as much as I hate to say it you Witches are the only ones who really understand power on that level."

"Thank you sir," said Sakamoto sincerely, "But what exactly will we tell command about the incident?"

"Hm," said Hasegawa leaning forward to rest his elbows on the desk. "I really don't see a problem," he said thoughtfully, "The only thing we need to tell command is that you and the boy were rescued by the young lady. That takes care of any questions about the boy and if they ask about the young lady we can tell them that she's part of a special Witch Council project." He glanced up at Sakamoto when he finished, "How does that sound?"

"That sounds perfect sir," said Sakamoto, "Except for the fact that nobody in the Witch Council knows anything about either of them."

"Well then you'd better go to the radio room to inform them now shouldn't you Major?" said the Captain, as he wrote down something on a piece of paper. Finishing he handed it to the Major, "This will let you use the long range radio by yourself. I suggest you move fast because I need to make my report as well."

"Sir!" said Sakamoto as she saluted, "Thank you very much sir."

"Oh and Major," Hasegawa said abruptly, "I suggest you get yourself and your new friends to Barin ASAP. We'll be in good range for you by about midday tomorrow. That way you won't have to deal with anyone command sends to the docks."

"Yes Sir," said Sakamoto, "I'll make sure the Strikers are ready as soon as I'm done with the message."

"Good," said Captain Hasegawa as he returned her salute, "Dismissed Major."

Turning on her heels Major Sakamoto left the cabin and headed for the communications room. Greeting the men she passed she wound her way upwards towards her destination. Arriving there she ducked inside the hatch without pausing.

Glancing around, she located the officer in charge, a junior grade lieutenant, leaning over one of the techs and headed in his direction. Glancing up he stood and saluted as she approached. Returning his salute she handed him the paper, "I need the long range set Lieutenant."

"Yes mam," he said. Leading her over to the far corner of the room he opened a heavy curtain and tapped the operator on the shoulder, making him vacate his seat. Turning back to the Major he asked, "Do you need any help Major?"

Sakamoto shook her head and said, "No Lieutenant I've got it from here."

Nodding in acknowledgement the Lieutenant snapped of a quick salute and went back through the curtain to the rest of his men.

Sitting down in the recently vacated chair Sakamoto grabbed the headset and slipped it over her head. Pausing for just a second she turned to the curtain and lifted her eye patch to make sure that no one was trying to listen in. That accomplished she spun the dial to the frequency she wanted from memory and started speaking, trusting that her earpiece was doing its job encoding the transmission. "This is 501 Bravo calling Coven, I say again this is 501 Bravo calling Coven, over."

"501 Bravo this is Coven over," came back a second later.

"Coven, 501 Bravo needs to speak to Coven Actual or ranking officer, immediate priority, over."

"Wait one Bravo," came back the reply.

Sakamoto wasn't surprised she had to wait, she'd just called into the Witches central command in Britain and asked for Brigadier General Adolfine Galland herself. There were only a few active duty Witches ranked higher than her in the entire world and none of them were likely to be near a radio.

It was more like five minutes but eventually the radio came alive again.

"This is Coven Actual over," said Adolfine's distinctive voice through the headphones.

"Coven Actual this is 501 Bravo, over," said Sakamoto

"Ah, Major Sakamoto" said Galland, "I assume you have something urgent for me since you called directly."

"Yes Ma'am," said Sakamoto, "I need you to produce some documentation for a non-existent Striker development program and fast."

The radio was silent for a moment before Galland came spoke again. "Explain," she said recognizing that Sakamoto was being serious.

Again Sakamoto explained the situation. Her initial action followed by the appearance of Ichika and then the information she and Natasha had discussed. She also included Captain Hasegawa's ideas on the matter.

Galland was quiet for a moment before she started speaking again.

"Good call invoking the Council Major," she said, "I can see why you wanted this under wraps. I'll get the paper trail started as soon as I get done here."

"Thank you ma'am," said Sakamoto, relieved that she had made the right call.

"Just one thing Major," said Galland, "You said you have no idea where these other five girls might be?"

"No ma'am," said Sakamoto, "I assume that they're scattered as well."

"Very well," said Galland, "I'll put the word out so our friends know to watch for them."

"Thank you ma'am," said Sakamoto again, "501 Bravo out."

"Coven Actual out," came the final reply.

After that final transmission Sakamoto took off her headset and spun the dial to a different frequency. The frequency wasn't exactly top secret but it was something that a very junior communications tech shouldn't have in case he got bored or decided to tell his friends.

Opening the curtain she looked around and spotted the lieutenant. Gesturing that the radio was open she then headed out of the communications room and headed down the hall. Reaching an intersection she turned towards the hangar deck.

Originally she had planned to wait till the task force had arrived at Portsmouth to fly out to Castle Barin; a nice short hop of about one hundred miles, but recent events had changed that plan. Like the captain had said by midday tomorrow they would be in range of a transport hop for the Striker Units. Normally transport meant just that, a long slow steady fight with little to no extra magic for fancy maneuvers or shields. But over the Bay of Biscay that meant having enough juice to run or fight at least once. That meant having the best tuned units possible.

Reaching the hangar deck Sakamoto headed over to the area reserved for Striker Units. Besides needing their special stands, Striker Units were different enough from regular aircraft that they needed their own technicians and parts. The Akagi usually carried between 4-8 Witches on a combat cruise, which translated into a maximum of sixteen Striker units. Despite the high number of units, their small area relative to a normal aircraft had allowed the designers to fit the necessary stands and specialized equipment in without a reduction in capacity for standard planes.

Currently though, Sakamoto was the only Witch in the entire task force besides Yoshika. High Command had not seen the need for any more Witches when the force would be out of alien range for most of its journey and every available witch was needed for combat. Despite this the Akagi was still carrying its full complement of top line N1K5-J Strikers. These were part of Japans payment to the British for their ships upgrades as well as part of the ongoing effort to keep technological development between nations racing forward.

Reaching the Striker area Sakamoto sought out Chief Petty Officer Nakamura, the most senior Striker tech on board. She found him watching over two able seamen as they worked on one of the Strikers. Noticing her approach he turned and snapped off a quick salute.

"Major Sakamoto," he said smartly, "I wasn't expecting you down here until tomorrow."

Returning his salute Sakamoto said, "I wasn't expecting to be down here either Chief but there's been a change of plans. I need your two best Strikers in perfect order tomorrow; we'll be making a straight hop to Castle Barin."

Nodding in acknowledgement Nakamura said, "Yes ma'am I'll get on that right away." Pausing for just a second he said, "That's quite a hop ma'am, are you sure the girl can make it?"

"She'll be fine chief," said Sakamoto. Pinning him with a glare she then asked, "Speaking of which, how did Yoshika manage to get into a Striker earlier? Much less get it up on deck and takeoff?"

"Honest to god major I don't know," said Nakamura, "One minute you were taking off and the next somebody was directing the girl onto the elevator. I asked around to see who let her on but the best I can figure is she got here by herself and nobody bothered to stop and check if she was allowed to fly."

"Humph," snorted Sakamoto, "If that's the case then I'll let it slide, just make sure she doesn't take off again without my express permission."

"Yes ma'am," said Nakamura, "If you'll excuse me ma'am I'd like to get started on your Strikers."

"Carry on chief," said Sakamoto, returning his salute and watching him head off, shouting for his men. Glancing down at her watch she realized that she'd spent nearly two hours moving around the ship and in conversation with her superiors. It was at that point her stomach growled and reminded her that she hadn't eaten in nearly eight hours.

With that she headed towards the officers mess. Arriving there she immediately noticed the smell of strong, if not necessarily the best, tea and something that promised to be at least palatable. Heading over to the serving area she grabbed a bowl of udon along with some tea. Sitting at a table she started to eat quickly as she was wont to do and was left alone by the few other officers there.

As she sat eating she thought about the many things that had happened in such a short time. The strange arrival of Ichika and Natasha, the possibility of five more just like them and the possible implications of their technology. She also thought, briefly about her actions against the Martian dreadnaught, but didn't dwell on it like new recruits were likely to do. However her quick eating cut down any real philosophical questions before they began.

Finished, she grabbed two more bowls of udon and put them on a tray along with some tea and headed back to the infirmary. Knocking at the edge of the hatch she said, "Delivery!" and walked into the infirmary.

Seeing her enter Doctor Ichegawa looked up from the same position he had been in when she left hours earlier.

"Major Sakamoto," he said amusedly, "You didn't need to do that, I was just about to call down."

"You know me," she said with a grin, "Always going out of my way to do stupid shit."

"Yes and we all thank you for it," said Ichegawa clearing his desk so she could set down the tray.

"So," said Sakamoto sitting down in the chair in front of his desk, "Did Miss Fairs come out again or did she decide to sleep?"

"She decided to sleep," said the doctor taking his chopsticks and grabbing some noodles.

"Can't say I blame her," said Sakamoto, "I think I'll hit my bunk after this."

"Mmm," said the doctor as he slurped up noodles.

"I'll go check on our two sleeping beauties," said Sakamoto, leaving the doctor to his meal.

Walking over to the curtained off area Sakamoto opened the curtain gently and peeked inside. What she saw made her want to snicker. Sometime during her absence Ichika had rolled over towards Natasha and now his arms were wrapped around her and his nose was almost in her hair. In short, they were snuggled up like lovers.

"And after all that shit she gave me," said Sakamoto under her breath, "She is so going to get it."

Deciding to let the two of them get some sleep Sakamoto backed away and closed the curtain before heading back to the good doctor's desk. Deciding she was still hungry she grabbed the other set of chopsticks and dug into the remaining bowl of udon alongside the doctor.

"How are our sleeping beauties?" asked Ichegawa a few minutes later, after they had both mostly finished their meals.

Slurping up the last of her noodles, Sakamoto said, "They're doing fine. In fact," she said grinning, "I'd say they were doing great."

"Oh?" asked Ichegawa, "And what in your great store of medical knowledge would give you that idea Major?"

Sakamoto snorted, "Nothing like that doctor," she said, "just the fact that the two of them were all curled up like bugs in a rug."

Ichegawa snorted at that as well, "Ah to be young and in love again," he said.

"Don't think its love doctor," she said, "Just a couple of young people tired and alone in a great big scary world." Checking her watch she stood up, "And with that," she said, "I am going to hit my rack. I had a big day today and tomorrow promises to be busy as well. Goodnight doctor."

"Goodnight Major," he said waving, "I will take care of the dishes later."

Nodding her thanks Sakamoto headed out of the infirmary and towards her cabin. Reaching it she shut and locked her door before she let herself yawn immensely. Removing her jacket and one-piece she slipped into an overlarge shirt before climbing into bed and falling asleep nearly as soon as her head hit the pillow.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Ichika Orimura woke slowly from his sleep. His mind felt hazy and he didn't want to wake up. But something inside him didn't want to sleep anymore and he was pushed to a sleepy awareness even as he kept his eyes closed.

At first he didn't really notice the tickling sensation at the end of his nose or that his arms were wrapped around something. But then he yawned and his body automatically contracted inward. Suddenly his senses were flooded with all sorts of interesting information.

First off his face; it was buried in something that was soft and smelled…nice, was all his now rapidly clearing brain could manage. Next his arms were definitely wrapped around something, no it was warm and breathing and that made it somebody, not something, and that somebody was definitely very soft. Next there was an arm wrapped around his side and back. There were also some very soft legs wrapped up in his legs. And his chest…his chest was pressed against somebody else's chest and that somebody was definitely a woman.

Managing not to scream like he had when Laura had crawled into his bed, Ichika opened his eyes and was confronted by a mass of blonde hair. Cecilia? No his brain said as it caught up, Cecilia was somewhere else, this was the other blonde, the American. What was her name? N something, Nancy? No that wasn't it, Natasha, that was it, Natasha Fairs.

As his brain finally cleared the last of the fog Ichika carefully lifted up the sheet. Last time he had an uninvited bedmate he had gotten an eyeful of Laura naked. Not that he had truly minded, but it wouldn't be good to start out that way with a stranger. Luckily for him she was wearing clothes. Unluckily, she was wearing one of those skintight swimsuit like outfits that the girls wore when they flew there IS's. It was a deep blue with white trimming and she…filled it out very well, better than Houki but not as well as Yamada sensei.

Ichika shook his head at that. Now was exactly the wrong time to be thinking like that. Trying to figure out a way to extract himself without waking her, Ichika quickly realized that he was stuck. Between her laying on his other arm, the tangled legs and her having her arm around him, there was no way to extract himself without her waking, which was a problem because certain other parts of him were waking as well. Realizing he had to do something quickly, Ichika threw off the sheet covering the two of them and stated reciting the digits of pie like he had with Char.

That seemed to at least waken her a little. However she didn't appreciate the lack of warmth and wriggled herself closer to Ichika, which did interesting things to her legs and the pressure against his chest. Gulping Ichika thought, "Why does this always happen to me?"

Trying desperately to get out of the increasingly desperate situation, Ichika slowly tried moving his other arm out from underneath the sleeping blonde. He managed to move it a couple inches but then Natasha shifted. Fearing she would wake Ichika froze. But all she did was lift her head back up to his shoulder and negate any movement he had made.

Sighing, Ichika realized that he would have to wake her. The only girl he had ever woken up before was Chifuyu and that was rarely. Gulping, he put his free hand on her shoulder and gently shook her.

"Miss Fairs?" he said in a low tone, "Miss Fairs please wake up."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Natasha usually woke rather quickly; several years in the military did that to a person. But today she was in a state of semi-awareness, not quite awake but not asleep. What she did not was that she felt warm and comfortable snuggled up to…something.

For a long time the something didn't move, it just breathed like she did. Then she heard some kind of noise and the thing squeezed her. The thing didn't squeeze very hard though so she just continued to enjoy its presence. The thing wriggled around a little after that but then it settled down.

The next thing she knew it there was a rippling noise and she was cold. She did not enjoy being cold. However the thing was warm and right next to her so she decided to snuggle up closer to it. Next her pillow started moving. It didn't move very far but she lost her comfy spot so she moved her head back. It stopped moving after that.

The next thing she knew she was being shaken. There was also some background noise, but she couldn't make it out. The shaking continued and she started to make out some of the noise, "ease…ake up…"As the shaking still kept going, she finally surged towards full consciousness. Blinking her eyes she sat up slightly and stretched her arms up over her head.

As Natasha finally woke up, Ichika quickly withdrew his arm and moved away from her. However he could only move so far as his bed was up against the wall, which meant that when she started stretching, that he got an eye full of her breasts. As she finished stretching Ichika realized that their legs were still tangled and tried his best to melt into the bulkhead.

As Natasha finished stretching, she opened her eyes to the sight of Ichika cowering against the bulkhead. Mildly confused, she stared at him as he stared at her. Realizing that he wasn't going to say anything she broke the silence.

"Why are you trying get away?" she asked, her voice still sleepy.

"B-because," came Ichika's nervous reply.

"Because why?" she asked.

Unable to speak Ichika simply pointed at her legs. Turning her head she realized that their legs had become tangled sometime while they slept. Snorting, she simply untangled her legs from his. Once that was done, Ichika quickly backed himself up into the corner of the bed.

Bemused, Natasha sat back on her legs, taking the foot of the bed. Looking over the nervous boy in front of her, she realized that Sakamoto was right, he was entirely too good looking, especially for his age. He hadn't hit his full growth yet, there was still some baby in his face, but there was definitely a strong face growing and he was definitely fit, but with some room to fill out and become a man.

Shaking herself mentally, she watched as the boy started to relax after she made no move towards him.

"Why?" she asked simply.

"Why, what?" he answered, still nervous but noticeably calmer than before.

"Why were you so scared?" she asked.

"Uhm…" said Ichika, pausing to think over why exactly he was scared of the beautiful woman in front of him.

"It's a conditioned response," he finally said.

"A conditioned response?" asked Natasha amusedly.

"Uhm, yeah," said Ichika, sounding and looking like he realized how lame he sounded, "Anytime something like this happens it usually ends with me getting beaten up."

Natasha saw the hangdog look on Ichika's face and burst out laughing. She couldn't help it, he just looked so pathetic. The look on his face quickly changed from hangdog to confused, which only made her laugh even more.

"What?" he finally managed to choke out, after almost a minute of her laughing.

"N-nothing," she said, choking down her laughter, "You just looked so pathetic when you said that."

"Well I do!" exclaimed Ichika frustratedly.

"I'm sorry," said Natasha with mirth in her voice, as she finally stopped laughing, "But how often do things like "This"," she waved her hands at the situation, "happen that you always get beat up. And what do you mean by this?"

"W-well," said Ichika, turning red, "A-anytime I get close to a girl like that I…I usually get beat up. A-and it happens enough," he said, finishing while looking down at his lap.

Natasha was having entirely too much fun teasing Ichika, so she decided to press the clearly embarrassed young man.

"What was the last time something like "This" happened?" she asked, leaning forward, a smile on her face.

Ichika had looked up when she started talking but immediately looked down when she moved forward.

Turning red as he spoke he managed to stutter out, "L-Laura."

"Oh yeah," said Natasha teasingly, "and what did miss Bodewig do to you?"

"S-she," Ichika stuttered, not noticing Natasha knew Laura's last name, "she did the same thing you did."

"What," said Natasha, still moving closer, "She climbed into bed with you?"

Ichika nodded unconsciously backing away, "B-b-butt, s-s-she w-was n-n-n-n…" he stuttered out, but was unable to finish.

"Naked?" asked Natasha, finally pinning Ichika against the wall.

Ichika nodded desperately, trying very hard not to look at anything but his lap.

"Hmm," said Natasha, closing to within a few inches of Ichika's face, "And who beat you up that time?"

"H-Houki," said Ichika, nearly bright red now, "W-with her b-bokken."

"Oh really?" said Natasha. "That reminds me," she continued in a sterner tone, "I owe you some punishment."

Ichika nodded, turning as red as a tomato as he remembered what Natasha was likely talking about.

"Now raise your head but keep your eyes closed," said Natasha in the same stern tone.

Ichika did as he was told and raised his head, prepared to take his punishment like a man. Interminable seconds passed by as Ichika waited for whatever terrible punishment the blonde American might have for him. He heard her move and braced himself, and then she hit him.

Ichika was stunned, he hadn't known what to expect, but it was certainly not this. His eyes flashed open and he caught sight of the finger that had poked him between the eyes before Natasha yelled, "Closed!" and he shut his eyes again.

"That was for a lot of things," she said seriously. "This," she said with a much softer voice, "Is for saving my life, twice."

It was then she kissed him fully on the mouth.

Ichika had only been kissed once in his life and that had been by Laura. She had been enthusiastic, but she really didn't know how to kiss. Natasha knew how to kiss. Ichika's poor little mind went from panicked, to flooded by endorphins, faster than anything he had ever experienced.

The kiss didn't last long, probably not more than a few seconds. It certainly didn't leave Ichika any time for more than an impression of something warm, wet and tasting vaguely of something he couldn't identify. Then Natasha broke the kiss and moved her face back.

Ichika opened his eyes and looked at the gorgeous blonde in front of him. At the moment he wasn't thinking to clearly, but he knew that he wanted to do that again.

On the other side Natasha didn't know what had come over her. She had meant to kiss him, but just on the cheek. But something had come over her when she got close to him and she had ended up actually kissing him. It had also taken entirely too much of her willpower to break the kiss as quickly as she had. She wasn't sure why, but the kiss had felt…good.

The two of them stared at each other for another unknown period of time, before a voice cut in, startling them both.

"Ahem," coughed Sakamoto, "Would you two like breakfast or am I interrupting?"

To say that Ichika and Natasha leapt apart would be a misnomer. Ichika had probably moved faster when he was using ignition boost, but not by much, as he again plastered himself to the bulkhead. Natasha somehow managed to _LEAP_ backwards from her forward kneeling position and ended up almost falling off the foot of the bed, managing to save herself only by also leaning against the bulkhead.

"Breakfast sounds nice," said Natasha in a strained tone. Getting down off the bed she looked at Ichika, who was still plastered against the bulkhead, and said, "Come on Ichika, Major Sakamoto doesn't bite."

Still bright red Ichika nodded and got up out of the bed. Despite being bigger than either of the girls, his embarrassment made him seem to be the smallest person in the room. Sakamoto walked over with a stern face and rapped him on the head with her knuckles.

"What in the hell is wrong with you? You're a man aren't you?" she said angrily to an again stunned Ichika. Ichika, for his part, managed to nod.

"Have a little self-respect then man!" said Sakamoto, continuing to berate him, "You just got kissed by an attractive woman! What in the world have you got to be embarrassed for?"

At this point Ichika was half convinced he was in some kind of weird unending dream, but he managed to shrug his shoulders in confusion.

"That's right!" continued Sakamoto, still in an angry voice, "Nothing! That's what! Now grow a spine, stand up straight, get a little self-respect, take responsibility for your actions and act like a man!"

Ichika flinched visibly each time Sakamoto tongue lashed him. But when she finished he at least stood up straight, even if he didn't look all that confident. Sakamoto looked him up and down before nodding.

"Not great," she said thoughtful tone, "But I'll take it for right now." Continuing in a kinder, but still firm tone she said, "Now I'm sure you want breakfast, but you smell. Go out the door, turn left and the third door on the right is a shower room. Go take one, please."

Ichika nodded and managed to get out his first words, "Yes ma'am," he said in a tone that was still confused, but had some purpose.

Sakamoto kept the stern face on until Ichika moved past the curtain and then turned on Natasha, a smug smile on her face.

"Oh no!" she said, mocking Natasha's voice, "He's four years younger than me!" Continuing in her own voice she said, "By my count that took," she glanced at her watch, "About ten hours to break," looking up she continued, "Two if you count getting into bed with him."

Natasha had her "I didn't do anything" face on and managed to keep her voice fairly neutral. "I didn't have any choice but to get in bed with him, my adrenaline ran off at exactly the wrong time and if I didn't get in I was going to sleep on the floor," she said, almost primly, "And I never said he was too young to kiss, just that he was too young to be my boyfriend."

"Uh huh," said Sakamoto, giving her the "Yeah whatever you say" look, "That didn't look like a thank you kiss to me. More like something you'd give a lover."

"How long were you there anyway?" asked Natasha, trying to deflect the question.

"Deflecting huh?" said Sakamoto, not fooled in the least, "Fine I'll bite, I was standing there since he told you about his little adventure with the naked girl."

Natasha blushed at that, remembering all that she had done between that time and when Sakamoto interrupted. "You will tell nobody," she said in a voice that tried to be intimidating, but mostly managed to sound like she was begging.

"No I won't," agreed Sakamoto amiably, "At least, not unless I think it'll be REALLY embarrassing."

Natasha shook her head, but that was about all she was going to get out of Sakamoto. She decided to switch topics. "Why'd you go off on him anyway?" she asked curiously, "I mean I was embarrassed too and you didn't go off on me."

Sakamoto shook her head at that, "Yeah, but you owned it," she said and then grinned mischievously, "Besides, I can't tell my elders what to do." Continuing in a more serious tone she said, "But I went off on him for a number of reasons. One of which is that story I heard. If he doesn't learn to man up he's going to catch hell at the castle, the girls will make sure of that. Another reason is that he's going to need a spine to survive in this world. And finally," she said this part with a grin, "Is that I'm going to have fun training him. With the girls I usually have to go easy on them, they're too fragile or they're already trained. But with him, with him he's old enough to understand and he's developed enough that I can really push it."

"Hmm," Natasha thought about that a little, "If you say so," she said, "But I'm going to need to be in on his training too."

"Why?" asked Sakamoto simply, "I need a reason if you actually want to help."

Natasha shook her head and then glanced at Sakamoto "I assume that you're likely to ask or make us fight, since you're talking about training him."

"I was going to ask," said Sakamoto, "Politely."

"Anyway," said Natasha, "I need to be in on his training because his IS technique is horrible and you don't know how to teach that."

"Really?" asked Sakamoto, "He seemed to do ok against you in that battle, all things considered."

Natasha shook her head, "You wouldn't notice, but there were many, many things wrong with what he did. Most of them minor, but there were a lot of them. He really should've been able to end the battle with his first strike. And then it took six of them to take me, no not even me, the Gospels AI, which is frankly unacceptable given what they were piloting" She gave Sakamoto a grin, "But the kid has talent and between the two of us, I think one day, we might be able to make it so he can fight me one on one."

Sakamoto looked at Natasha appraisingly and then grinned, "That sounds like a plan Miss Fairs," she said, "Now let's go get a shower, you smell too."

Natasha punched Sakamoto in the shoulder and Sakamoto laughed, as the two of them headed out of the infirmary.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Ichika found the shower room right where Sakamoto had said it would be. Stepping inside, he noticed that it was unoccupied. Thanking whatever gods there might be, he peeled off his IS suit and stepped into the shower bay. Turning on the shower, he was immediately hit by a stream of cold water.

Muttering under his breath, he did his best to shower quickly. While he showered he thought about his situation. Mostly he thought about where he was and how he got here, wherever here was. He obviously wasn't anywhere near the site of the battle with the Gospel, otherwise Chifuyu would have come and found him by now.

Rubbing his hair, he wondered how he got here. The flash was the only thing he could think of, but he didn't know how that would work. And if the flash did it then where were the girls? They were right next to him when it happened. And what if they ran into one of those giant flying things? Would they be all right?

Ichika stopped and laughed at himself internally, he doubted any of the girls would have any trouble fighting that thing. He was the weak one; he was the one who needed to get stronger.

Finishing his shower he dried off and put his old clothes back on and left to find the Major and Miss Fairs.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Ichika sighed; he was sitting outside the infirmary, waiting for Natasha and the Major to find him. He had returned to the infirmary and expected them to still be there but they had apparently left. He had looked around, but the walls all looked the same so he returned before he got lost.

He was staring at the floor, having exhausted his ability to answer the questions floating in his head. He didn't hear the light footsteps coming down the hall until they were almost right on top of him. Looking up when he did hear them, he saw a girl younger than him standing over him.

"Ichika senpai!" she said in a happy voice, "You're awake!"

Staring at the girl Ichika tried to remember her name, "You're…Miyafuji? Right?" he said with as much confidence as he could muster.

"Yep!" she said with a happy smile, "I'm Yoshika Miyafuji! It's nice to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you too," said Ichika slowly, he was almost overwhelmed by the girls cheerfulness. Continuing on he said, "But why did you call me senpai?"

Yoshika suddenly became embarrassed, crossing her knees and hands while looking down. "Uhm…well," she said nervously, "Y-you're older than me and I saw you take out that dreadnaught all by yourself. S-s-so I thought that you could maybe be my senpai." She trailed off a bit after that before saying, "B-but I understand if you don't want to be."

Ichika looked up at the small, embarrassed girl and sighed. He could feel his protective instincts kicking in. No matter what, if a girl was in trouble, he had to help. That was how he was raised by Chifuyu and it stuck even through the world making women more powerful than men. Standing up he reached over and patted Yoshika on the head.

"It's fine," he said gently, "I can be your senpai. Just don't expect too much of me yet, O.K.?"

The look of happiness that Yoshika gave Ichika bordered on hero worship and almost made him feel uncomfortable. Then she leaped forward and hugged him around tightly around the waist and said, "Oh thank you so much Ichika senpai!"

Ichika was taken by surprise and didn't know what to do at the sudden rush of affection from the younger girl.

"Err, you're welcome," he said and patted her on the head.

It was then that Major Sakamoto and Natasha came around the corner.

"Oh my," said Sakamoto as they approached, "I see you've met your new admirer Ichika."

Yoshika turned around and ran to Major Sakamoto when she heard her voice. "Major Sakamoto!" she said happily, "Isn't it great! Ichika senpai said he would be my senpai!"

"Yes that's great isn't it," said Sakamoto, as she smiled and ruffled Yoshika's hair, "Just make sure you don't bother him too much."

"I won't!" said Yoshika happily.

Natasha for her part didn't say anything; she just shook her head at Yoshika's antics. "It's already starting," she thought in her head, somehow managing not including herself in that statement.

"It's actually good you're here Yoshika," said Sakamoto, "I was going to go pick you up for breakfast after we got Ichika."

"You were?" asked Yoshika curiously.

"Yep," said Sakamoto, "There's something I need to talk to you all about over breakfast."

"O.K!" said Yoshika happily. "Let's go Senpai!" she said as she grabbed Ichika's hand and started pulling the bewildered boy after her.

Chuckling Sakamoto followed after them as Natasha kept pace and shook her head.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Sakamoto was finishing up talking to all of them after they had finished a filling, if not exactly tasty, breakfast. "So because of time constraints command want's the four of us to fly out as soon as possible, which means around midday." Looking at Natasha and Ichika she said, "That's just around 700 miles for us. That means we're just within range for me and Yoshika, will you two have any problems with that?"

Natasha answered for the two IS users, saying, "No it won't be," she paused for a second, "Or at least it wouldn't be, but the Gospel is still repairing itself after the battle."

"That's no good," said Sakamoto, her one eye serious, "Neither I or Yoshika can carry you either, we're going to be at the edge of our magic as it is. Could Ichika carry you?" she asked looking at the person in question.

"Uhm," said Ichika, turning a little red, "That shouldn't be a problem."

"Good!" said Sakamoto happily, "Then that solves our problem."

"Do I not get a say?" asked Natasha somewhat sarcastically.

"Nope," said Sakamoto, "We need to get to Barin ASAP. Besides," she said grinning now, "You spent the whole night next to him, what are a couple more hours?"

Ichika turned a little redder at that and Natasha muttered under her breath, "That was different," but neither of them said anything else to Sakamoto.

Yoshika of course, had to ask a question. "You slept with Ichika senpai?" she asked Natasha interestedly, "What was it like?"

Normally that question would be awkward to the point of excess, but Natasha just couldn't deny Yoshika's earnestness. "Uhm," she said, uncertain on how to proceed, "Well for most of it I was asleep," Yoshika's eyes begged her for more, "But it was warm…and comfy," she finished lamely.

"Ooooohhhhh," said Yoshika, "That sounds nice! Can I try sleeping with senpai when you don't?"

Natasha shook her head, admiring Yoshika's complete obliviousness. "I don't plan on sleeping with Ichika again," she said in a tone that was part embarrassed, part befuddled, "So it's up to him," she looked at Ichika as she finished.

"Well senpai, can I, can I?" asked Yoshika, looking at Ichika earnestly.

"I-I don't think that's a good idea," he managed to stutter out.

"Aww," said Yoshika pouting, "Why not?"

Ichika felt his resistance breaking down as he looked at Yoshika's pouting face. Glancing away, he managed to retain a bit of will and said, "W-well maybe if you have a bad day or something."

"Yay!" said Yoshika, throwing her hands in the air, "Senpai said I could sleep with him!"

Ichika just crumpled into himself, at least until Sakamoto whapped him again.

"What did I say about self-respect?" she asked him.

Straightening up Ichika said, "I'm sorry Major."

"Better," she said. Standing up she said, "We all have a long flight ahead of us, I suggest that you all get some rest before then."

"Ok," said Natasha, standing as well, "Come on Ichika. Let's go back to the infirmary."

"Ok," he said, standing up quickly and almost tripping.

"Yoshika," said Sakamoto, "You're going with me."

"Awww!" complained Yoshika, "I wanted to go with Senpai!" Despite her complaining she went with Sakamoto.

Ichika followed Natasha out of the dining hall and towards the infirmary. The walk back was quiet; Ichika didn't really know how to start a conversation and Natasha apparently didn't want to either.

Entering the infirmary Natasha nodded at the doctor and headed immediately for the closed off corner reserved for the two of them. Ichika followed, expecting to take a nap before leaving. Therefore he almost ran into Natasha when she stopped inside the curtain.

Turning she reached up and grabbed his shoulders. Ichika froze, not knowing what she was going to do. Natasha pulled him to her eye level and stared him in the eyes, trying to find something in them. Ichika didn't know what she was doing, but he didn't resist. Instead he stared into her blue eyes, not knowing what else to do. After several seconds she sighed and let him go.

"You don't even know you do it do you?" she muttered under her breath.

"What?" asked Ichika, hearing her speak, but not the words she used.

"Nothing," she said in her full voice. Turning towards Ichika she gestured towards his bed, "Sit," she said, "We have a lot to talk about."

Still confused, Ichika did as he was told. When he was seated Natasha took a seat on the bed opposite of his.

"Have you tried using your IS, since you woke up?" asked Natasha.

"No, why?" answered Ichika.

"Try accessing the communications protocols for it," said Natasha.

Ichika wasn't quite sure what was going on, but he did as Natasha asked. Since he had not used more than the basic communications that often, he had to think about it before he got what he wanted. When he did bring up what he desired he was shocked.

"There's nothing!" he said with surprise.

"Exactly," said Natasha, "There's just radio traffic, nothing like the complex communications net of our world."

"That…That means we really did jump somewhere," Ichika said disbelievingly.

"Yeah," said Natasha, "We did. And I think that Major Sakamoto was telling the truth when she said it was 1943."

"That's…unbelievable," said Ichika, "If it's 1943 and the Akagi is still floating…what else could have changed?"

"A lot actually," said Natasha, "Major Sakamoto and I had a nice chat while you were sleeping. You want to hear it?"

Ichika just nodded his head, a little too stunned to speak at the moment. Natasha filled him in on what she and Sakamoto had talked about before. The only things she left out were the details of the White Knight incident and what they had said about Ichika. She also saved a happy tidbit for the end.

"So let me get this straight," said Ichika, "It's WWII, but Martians invaded on December 7th 1941 and there are women with magical powers."

"That's about the gist of it yeah," said Natasha.

"And I thought school was bad!" said Ichika, "Now there's a war, against real Martians!" He lay back against the wall and blew air out of his mouth, "I wish I were normal sometimes," he said sadly.

Natasha let him sit for a few seconds before saying, "There is some good news though."

"What's that?" asked Ichika, looking up at Natasha.

"Apparently the Major is taking us to a witch base," she said teasingly, "apparently theirs at least eleven of them and you'll be the only guy they see daily. And since they will all be Witches they'll be dressed similar to the Major."

In the complete opposite reaction to what she thought he'd do, Ichika groaned and threw himself onto his pillow. Natasha waited another few seconds for him to say it was a joke before she realized he was being serious. '

"That…" she said perplexed, "was not the reaction I expected."

Ichika rolled his head over so his mouth and one eye were visible before speaking, "Miss Fairs," he said slowly, "do you know what it's like to be a piece of meat being fought over by lions? Of course you don't," he continued without giving her a chance to answer, "If you spend more than a week or so being the only person of the opposite sex around a group of the other sex, you'll know, trust me," he sighed there, "Especially if you're the only one they're going to see for an extended period."

"So you didn't enjoy the affections of your friends?" asked Natasha cheekily.

"No," said Ichika simply, leaning up and looking at his lap, before continuing, "I mean I had fun sometimes yeah, but mostly it seemed like they tried to beat me up the most. Between Houki, Cecilia and Rin I could never catch a break," a big sigh, "Char…Char was more fun and she never beat me up, on purpose at least. But she'd get mad sometimes and I wouldn't know why. And Laura…I just never got a good read on her. I mean we were friends but she still hadn't really adjusted before all this."

Ichika paused a moment before continuing, "I'm not a complete idiot you know," he said glancing up at Natasha for a moment before looking down again, "I mean sure, I didn't notice at first but Cecilia, Houki and Rin weren't exactly forward with their feeling you know?" He shook his head there, "Char, I didn't notice at first but that was because she was disguised. I still don't know how she hid herself that long," another pause, "Or that well."

He looked up again, this time with a wry grin, "But even a dummy like me can tell a girl likes him when she gives him a naked hug in the bath. I thought everything was going to be good then, take it slow see how serious she was and how I really felt." He looked down again, "But then Rin almost killed me AGAIN when Char introduced herself the second time and Laura shoved her tongue down my throat after that. Then the bed incident," he shook his head again, "What was I supposed to do after that? They were all my friends and I couldn't just pick one of them! Especially when you're not sure how you feel about them. A guy can't juggle five women either and that would be cruel to them all anyway."

He looked up again, "So that's why I'm not thrilled about being the only guy in a base full of women. It's not healthy for a young guy like me, especially if they don't wear pants."

Natasha was mildly stunned by Ichika's understanding of his situation. Her brief had made him seem completely oblivious to almost everything. He was definitely brighter than he let on. Though she doubted he recognized the developing situation with Yoshika.

"That is…unexpectedly mature of you," she said.

"Boys aren't entirely controlled by their hormones Miss Fairs," Ichika said and then yawned. "If that's all your news I'm going to take a nap now if that's ok with you."

"That's fine Ichika," said Natasha and she watched him as he turned his back to her and pulled up the sheet. She sat and watched him lay there for a while, wondering why he seemed so much more mature than before.

After a few more minutes she pulled up her sheet and went to sleep as well.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Six hours later Natasha, Ichika and Yoshika got their first look at Castle Barin. At first it was just a speck in the distance. But as they closed they began to make out details, the tall central spire, the red roofs and the runway sticking out into the sea.

Thankfully the takeoff and flight over had been uneventful. Yoshika had some trouble initially, but quickly grasped flying in a straight line. Major Sakamoto had taken the lead, followed by Yoshika and then Ichika carrying Natasha. At first they had thought he might actually have to carry her in his arms the entire time, but CPO Nakamura had rigged up a harness for Natasha to wear and strapped it to Ichika so he wouldn't have to hold her. However that meant that Ichika had to fly the whole way with Natasha pressed against his chest.

As they closed interested parties on the ground began to gather.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"She should be here soon!" Perrine H. Clostermann nearly whined, as she scanned the sky, "The Major is never late!"

"Calm down," said the nearby Charlotte E. Yeager as she lay sunbathing, "You know how the Martians like to attack people over the bay; she might have had to fight some."

"Yeah," said a similarly laid out Francesca Lucchini, "Besides I heard she was bringing a new Witch with her so they might be late."

"You're out of date," said Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen, walking up with a grin, "I hear she's bringing three people."

"Wait," Charlotte said, sitting up, "Eila you said people, not Witches. Spill, now."

"Weeelllll," Eila said teasingly, "I heard Lieutenant Colonel Minna last night talking with HQ and I managed to overhear that there are three coming now," she paused there smiling, "and one of them is a guy."

"Oh my," said Lynette Bishop softly, "I wonder if we'll be able to talk to him."

"You weren't supposed to know that Eila," said Gertrud Barkhorn sternly as she dragged a sleepy Erica Hartmann behind her.

"What?" said Eila, "It wasn't exactly hard to hear; you know how the Colonel doesn't like men around us."

"I know," said Barkhorn, scanning the sky, "But you still shouldn't have told everybody."

"You're no fun Trude," said Charlotte, "We would've found out anyway."

"Yeah but that's not the point," replied Barkhorn, "OpSec is."

"They're over there," said Hartmann, pointing southeast with her right hand and covering her yawn with her left.

All the girls looked where she pointed, but Barkhorn was the first to see the specks.

"I have them," she said out loud, "But I only see three."

"Maybe they lost one?" asked Eila as she peered into the sky.

"The Major would never let that happen!" exclaimed Perrine as she finally caught sight of the flying trio.

"You never know," said Charlotte as she sat back down to sun some more, "If they were really new she might not have been able to help them."

"Maybe they lost the guy," said Lucchini, having never moved from her position on her stomach.

"Is it just me or does the third one look weird?" asked Eila.

"You're right," said Barkhorn, "It looks like it has wings."

"Why would it have wings?" asked Lucchini, "Strikers don't need wings."

"Don't know," said Barkhorn, "But it looks like it's carrying the fourth person."

By now the three approaching people were lining up for a landing. The male landing crews were standing by, but they were conspicuously not talking to the Witches. Sakamoto came in and made a perfect landing, cruising into the hangar and to her Striker stand. Yoshika came in next, managing to get down without damaging anything. She followed the Major into the hangar and managed to park her Strikers with some help from the ground crew.

"I wonder how he's going to land?" asked Lynne.

"I do too," said Charlotte, examining the odd suit, "It doesn't look like it has landing gear and it doesn't look like any Striker I've seen."

All the girls watched closely as Ichika made his first approach to Castle Barin.

"He's too high," said Barkhorn as he approached the end of the runway.

"He's not slowing down either," said Eila.

"I hope he doesn't crash," said Lynne.

"Ooh a crash," said Lucchini, watching him closely.

"He better not damage the runway!" said Perrine.

"Hmm," said Charlotte.

Erica yawned and scratched her leg.

Above them, Ichika flew down the runway, ignoring all the people below, focusing on where he wanted to land, which was right in front of the hangar. Natasha was hanging below him so he took the landing gently and kissed the ground so she could catch herself with her feet.

After he sat down, he dismissed Byakushki and undid the connection between him and Natasha. After that was done he glanced up and saw both the ground crews and the Witches staring at him like he had just done magic, which in a sense he had.

"Uhm," said Ichika quietly to Natasha, "Should I not have done that?"

"I don't think you really had any choice," said Natasha, "You would've had to show them anyway and so it's probably best to get it out of the way now."

Not a hundred feet away, the Witches were all staring at Ichika, stunned at what had just happened. Even Erica was stunned, staring at the young man.

"What, in the hell, was that," said Eila slowly.

"Oh my," said Lynne, putting her hand up to her mouth.

"Holy shit," said Lucchini.

"Mein Gott," said Barkhorn, slipping back into German.

"Wow," said Erica, her face moving from sleepy to surprise for the first time that day.

"Where did the Major find him?" asked Perrine, her face suddenly worried.

"I don't know," said Charlotte, a light appearing in her eyes, "But I am suddenly much more interested in that young man."

"Down girl," said Sakamoto as she came out of the hangar followed by Yoshika, "Who said you could even talk to him?"

"Eila did," said Charlotte, turning her gaze to the major, "She overheard Colonel Minna talking to HQ last night."

Sakamoto gave Eila a glare that she unsuccessfully tried to deflect with an innocent face.

"Don't give me that Eila," she said sternly, "You know it doesn't work."

"Yes major," Eila said sheepishly.

"Where did you find him anyway?" asked Barkhorn, her composure recovered.

"He saved my life from a dreadnaught," Sakamoto said simply, which got her stares from all of the girls.

"He killed a dreadnaught?" said Barkhorn, surprise coloring her voice, "He looks like a damn puppy!"

"A cute puppy," commented Eila slyly to Lynne, who blushed.

"How'd he kill it?" asked Charlotte, "I didn't see any weapons."

"He threw me in the air and ran it through with a sword," said Sakamoto.

"H-he threw you in the air!" exclaimed Perrine.

"A sword?" said Lucchini, "Cool!"

"Did it come from nowhere too?" asked Charlotte, eyes alight with possibilities.

"Yes it did," said Sakamoto, keeping her cool.

"Ichika senpai was so cool!" exclaimed Yoshika, "One second he was above it and the next he was below and it exploded!"

Everyone turned to stare at Yoshika and she deflated a little at the combined gaze of the other nine women.

"Everybody," said Sakamoto, "meet Yoshika Miyafuji, she's our new Witch."

"H-hello," said Yoshika, "Nice to meet you."

"Hello," said Lynne, "Nice to meet you too."

A chorus of muffled hello's and nice to meet you followed from the rest of the assembled girls.

"Lynne," said Sakamoto, "why don't you show Yoshika around?"

"Ok!" said Lynne and she gestured to Yoshika to follow her into the base.

"Perrine, Lucchini, I'm sure you have other places to be," Sakamoto said in a stern voice.

"Awww!" said Lucchini and she was accompanied by Perrine stuttering, "B-but major!"

"Go, now," said Sakamoto sternly. Turning to Eila as the two young ones walked away, she said, "You can stay if you keep your mouth shut."

Eila paused, obviously thinking over whether this was worth keeping shut or not. However she quickly decided it was and nodded seriously.

"Fine," said Sakamoto, and then waved Ichika and Natasha over.

Ichika and Natasha approached the group of five women when she waved them over.

"Girls," said Sakamoto, "meet Ichika Orimura and Natasha Fairs; they're not from around here. Ichika and Natasha, meet Gertrud Barkhorn, Erica Hartmann, Eila Juutilainen and Charlotte Yeager."

Sakamoto pointed to each girl in turn and Ichika tried to remember their faces. Barkhorn was only a little shorter than him with a medium build. She had brown hair that was in low pigtails, brown eyes and was currently sporting a questioning look towards him. She was wearing a dark grey German pilot's jacket and no pants.

Hartmann was only a little taller than Yoshika and was built along the same small lines. She had short cut blond hair and blue eyes. She was looking between him and Natasha with polite interest. She was wearing a black pilot's jacket and no pants.

Eila was not quite a head shorter than him and appeared to be built along lines similar to Barkhorn. She had very pale blonde hair that went below her shoulders and had very dark blue eyes that appeared to flash purple. She was looking at Ichika with a look he knew very well, the one of a lion assessing its prey. She was wearing a blue grey jacket and was at least wearing some white tights.

Yeager was just as tall as he was and had a medium build, except for her rather impressive chest. She had reddish orange hair that went below her shoulders and blue eyes. She was currently wearing a…very distracting red bikini top and what was quite possibly the smallest pair of red shorts Ichika had ever seen. She had a look similar to Eila's, but it was somehow less predatory and more curious.

"Hello," he said, with just a hint of nervousness in his voice, "I'm Ichika Orimura, nice to meet all of you."

Eila and Charlotte immediately stepped closer to him and shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you too Ichika, I'm Eila," Eila almost purred, "I'm veery pleased to meet you."

"Charlotte Yeager," said Charlotte with a light in her eyes, "You can call me Charlotte. Do you think I could check out that armor of yours?"

Barkhorn meanwhile looked back at Sakamoto and said, "Please tell me you were kidding when you said he saved your life."

Sakamoto shook her head, "Not a bit," she said seriously, "Though I will admit to having softened up the dreadnaught a bit. He still killed it."

Barkhorn shook her head, "I've only got three to my credit, I can't believe he killed one."

Meanwhile Natasha and Erica had started up a conversation.

"Since everyone else is looking over your boy toy I'll talk to you," said Erica extending her hand, "First Lieutenant Erica Hartmann."

"Natasha Fairs, US Representative Candidate," said Natasha, shaking her hand. Glancing over at Ichika she asked, "Why does everybody assume he belongs to me?"

"Well," said Erica, also looking at Ichika "I know he doesn't belong to Major Sakamoto and that little girl, Yoshika, she doesn't look like she's done playing with dollies yet. Then there's that fact that you happen to be wearing similar clothes and he carried you here."

"By that statement I guess he isn't your boy toy?" asked Erica turning to Natasha.

"No," said Natasha, shaking her head, "He isn't my boy toy."

"Then why are you looking at Eila like she's trying to steal him from you?" asked Erica with a grin.

Natasha almost retorted, but then realized she had been doing what Erica said. Shaking her head she said, "It's not like that, it's just…" she paused trying to explain the situation, "It's just we're the only two around from our home and I need to watch out for him."

Erica looked at her for a second and then back to Ichika before saying, "Un huh, if you say so." Glancing back to Natasha she said, "Just let me know if you ever really want something so I don't get in your way."

Turning back to Erica, Natasha asked, "So, question, do you happen to have a brother?"

"Yeah," said Erica, "Eric, he flies 109's out of Spain." Looking up at Natasha she asked, "Why?"

"No reason," said Natasha, "Just curious."

Erica gave her a look and was about to say something but was interrupted by the appearance of another woman. Her red hair swirled behind her and her brown-gold eyes had a fire in them as she rounded the corner of the hangar doors.

"First Lieutenant Yeager, First Lieutenant Juutilainen," she snapped, "Get away from that man!"

Charlotte and Eila immediately jumped back and saluted the new arrival.

"Yes ma'am Colonel Wilcke," they both snapped.

Glancing at Ichika the colonel turned on Sakamoto.

"Major Sakamoto," she said in a very official tone, "I want to see you and your two… friends, in my office, now."

With that she turned on her heels and headed back inside the base.

Erica looked in the direction of the disappeared red haired colonel then back to Natasha and said, "You are in sooooo much trouble."

_OOC: And there we go, the end of the first full length chapter of Infinite Strike Witches! I hope you enjoyed my attempts at humor and relationship building. And we finally met the most of the main cast! No action this chapter but I'll try and work some into the next one. _

_Anyway I hope you enjoyed this little story of mine. Please review, it really helps me write more. Constructive criticism is always welcome, I'm sure I need it. _

_And since you can tell this is going to be a long story, follow and fav. Nothing makes me happier than an inbox full of people who like my stuff. See you next time!_


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